Advisor gives important facts on widows' benefits
Social Security advisor Tom Margenau says when he explains Social Security rules to people, sometimes the information leads to higher benefits. In one case, a woman was thinking of filing for Social Security at age 62. She didn't like taking reduced benefits, but she said she needed the money. She wanted to ask him some general questions about applying for Social Security benefits.
Writing as an online advisor for "Acra Max Senior Living," here is some of his advice to her.
She said she was married many years ago, but that her husband died in the 1980s when they were both in their 20s. She had two later marriages, but each ended in divorce after a few years.
Margenau told her to check into possible widow's benefits on her first husband's account. She was skeptical because he died more than 30 years ago and had only paid into the Social Security system for about 10 years.
But he told her that Social Security survivor rules could work in her favor. Past earnings are indexed for inflation. So the 1980s dollars would be turned into present value dollars for the purposes of figuring her benefit.
And they treat his basic Social Security rate as if he was due his full retirement age benefit.
The lady found she was due a more-than-adequate amount in monthly widow's benefits from her deceased husband's Social Security record, even though he died 30 years ago.
She filed for reduced widow's benefits and will be getting 82.5 percent of his basic Social Security rate.
She will collect those benefits to age 66, when she will switch to 100 percent of her own retirement benefit rate.
But if she thinks she can live on those widow's benefits for another four years, she could wait until age 70, at which point she would get a 32 percent delayed retirement bonus added to her own monthly retirement checks.