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.
Marie’s husband died, leaving her eligible for survivor's benefits on his record.
As a widow, she has the option to file for survivor benefits and switch to her own work record. Each year she waits through age 70, her monthly benefit will increase by 8%. Alternatively, Marie could file on her own work record before full retirement age (67 in her case) and take the survivor benefit at her full benefit age.
Marie’s own full retirement age benefit is $2,244, and her widow benefit is $1,886. Her actuarially projected death age is 85.
Overall, she has five potential claiming strategies to consider, with the difference between the “best” and “worst” strategies being about $230,000 in projected lifetime payments.
What the Numbers Say
The least effective strategy would have seen Marie file in January 2025 at age 61 and 7 months for a reduced survivor benefit of $1,472. Later, in July 2025, she would have filed at age 62 and 1 month for her own reduced worker benefit of $1,580. This early claiming strategy delivers a projected lifetime benefit of $475,040.
A substantial bump in benefits comes from assuming that Marie waited until July 2025 to file for her reduced worker benefit of $1,580 before switching in June 2030 for her full survivor benefit of $1,886. This increase her lifetime benefit to $539,896.
Another big benefit increase comes if Marie waited until June 2030 to file at age 67 for her full survivor benefit of $1,886 before switching in June 2033 at age 70 to her maximized worker benefit of $2,782. This delivers a lifetime projected benefit of $624,296.
A minor benefit increase comes if Marie instead filed early in January 2025 for a reduced survivor benefit of $1,472 before switching in June 2030 to her own full worker benefit of $2,244. This raises the benefit projection to $625,264.
Finally, the best approach from a benefit projection maximization perspective is for Marie to have filed in January 2025 for a reduced survivor benefit of $1,472 and then switching in June 2033 to her maximized worker benefit of $2,782. This delivers a lifetime benefit of $705,072.
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