This is the latest in a series of articles featuring Social Security claiming case studies drawn from the ALM publication "2025 Social Security & Medicare Facts," by Michael Thomas with support from Jim Blair, a former Social Security administrator, and Marc Kiner, a planning expert with extensive experience in public accounting.
Kelly was married to each of her former husbands, David and Sam, for more than 10 years. She is currently single, and both David and Sam have passed away.
Kelly, then, is eligible for surviving divorced spousal benefits from either David’s or Sam’s record. Having worked herself, Kelly is also eligible for her own retirement benefits, with a full retirement age benefit at age 67 of $1,548. David’s age 67 FRA benefit is $2,186, while Sam’s is $2,457.
In this scenario, Kelly can file for survivor benefits at age 60 — or later — and can apply on her own work record starting with age 62 and 1 month. She can take the higher benefit in the beginning or take a lower amount before full retirement age, then claiming a higher alternative benefit at a later age.
What the Numbers Say
Even though Kelly is eligible on her own work record, she will end up taking only surviving divorced spousal benefits as both are higher than her own. That is, her own benefit at age 70, increased 24% for full delayed retirement credits, is still not higher than either of the divorced spousal benefit. As such, she has three primary claiming strategies to consider, and the difference between the “best” and “worst” strategy is about $130,000 in additional projected lifetime benefits.
The least effective strategy would see Kelly file in November 2032 at age 67 for 100% of her surviving divorced spousal benefit on Sam’s larger record, giving her $2,457 in monthly benefits and a total projected lifetime benefit of $604,422.
A more effective strategy would see Kelly first file at age 60 in November 2025 for a reduced surviving divorced spousal benefit of $1,756 on Sam’s record. She would then file on David’s record at age 67 in November 2032 for a monthly benefit of $2,186. This gives her a projected lifetime benefit amount of $685,260.
The superior strategy would see Kelly file at age 60 in November 2025 on David’s record for a reduced benefit of $1,562. She would then file at age 67 in November 2032 for a full surviving divorced spousal benefit on Sam’s record of $2,457. This results in a total lifetime benefit projection of $735,630.
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