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Social Security Q&A: Why Can’t I Collect Widow’s Benefits if I Collect Retirement?

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Question: As a widow, why am I not able to collect any benefit from my deceased spouse’s Social Security if I chose to take the benefit from my Social Security?

Answer: Once you have filed for two benefits, you get just the larger of the two. So to maximize your Social Security benefits, the trick is to take one benefit — the widows or your own retirement benefit — first, while letting the other grow.

For example, you can file just for your widow’s benefit starting at 60 and then wait until, say, 70 to collect your own retirement benefit, when it will start at its highest value. Or you can start your own retirement benefit at 62 and wait until full retirement age to take your widow’s benefit, when it will start at its highest value. Determining which option is best requires using very careful software, which Social Security doesn’t have, but which is commercially available.

Now if you are already, say, 72 and your husband, say, just died, you have no option but to take the larger of the two benefits. In effect, he paid, via his FICA contributions, for years for this life insurance policy that comes in the form of widow’s benefit to you, but then it’s being taxed up to the level of your own retirement benefit. This is very nasty business and reflects bureaucrats gone wild — trying to do good, but with rules so intricate that most people at Social Security don’t know many if not most of them. I’m all for having the government force people to save and buy life insurance for their spouses and children. If they don’t, everyone else has to pick up the bill for taking care of them. But there are better ways to do it.

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When it comes to personal finance, economics and our software care about one thing—your living standard. All questions in personal finance boil down to your living standard. Your decision about when and how to take Social Security can affect your living standard throughout your retirement.

I am a professor of economics and I’ve spent a good part of my academic career studying personal financial behavior. Here’s why my colleagues and I developed Maximize My Social Security. Deciding, on your own, which Social Security benefits to take and in which month to take them is incredibly difficult. Most households face millions of options. You can easily lose tens of thousands of dollars making the wrong choices.

My company’s software, Maximize My Social Security, can help you avoid costly mistakes and instead discover your maximized lifetime household benefits.

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