Know the Differences Between Social Security Spousal and Survivor Benefits

Carlson's Retirement Watch WeeklyRetirement ReportsRetirement Articles

Brought to you by Eagle Financial Publications

Know the Differences Between Social Security Spousal and Survivor Benefits

by Bob Carlson
Editor, Retirement Watch

05/17/2026

SPONSORED

The Opportunity Often Comes Before the Listing

Med-X is preparing for a potential Nasdaq listing under the reserved ticker MXRX, giving early investors an opportunity to invest before broader public market exposure. 

The company has already generated millions in sales, operates across 41 markets, carries zero long-term debt, is backed by Maxim Group Investment Bank, and has retail distribution through Amazon, Walmart, and Kroger. 

As demand continues to grow for safer, plant-based pest control solutions, Med-X is positioning itself within the rapidly expanding $17.6B biopesticide market.

Explore Med-X and become a shareholder at $4/share ahead of its planned Nasdaq listing.

Disclosures: This is a paid advertisement for Med-X’s Regulation A+ Offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.medx-rx.com.CLICK HERE…Fellow Investor,

Bob CarlsonAmong the most confusing and important Social Security issues are the differences between spousal and survivor’s benefits. Not knowing the differences can cost you or your spouse thousands of dollars in lifetime benefits. 

The rules are so confusing that the Social Security Administration (SSA) often makes mistakes, as documented by its Inspector General. 

Though survivor’s and spousal benefits seem to overlap and have similarities, they are separate benefits with different rules. Realizing that reduces confusion and improves planning. 

A married person has three potential benefits during his or her life: retirement, spousal and survivor’s benefits. 

Retirement benefits are based on your earnings history. Spousal and survivor’s benefits are based on your spouse’s earnings history. Spousal benefits are paid while your spouse is alive. Survivor’s benefits are paid after your spouse passes away. 

If your lifetime earnings are higher than your spouse’s, your retirement benefits probably will be higher than the spousal and survivor’s benefits. But you might receive more from spousal or survivor’s benefits than retirement benefits when your spouse had higher earnings. 

When you’re eligible for more than one benefit at the same time, most of the time you’re considered to have applied for all the benefits for which you’re eligible and will be paid only the higher of the benefits. 

Those are the general rules. Now, we look at the details of spousal benefits. 

You don’t need to qualify for a retirement benefit to be eligible for a spousal benefit. To qualify for a spousal benefit, you must have been married for at least one year, and your spouse must qualify for a retirement benefit, have claimed that benefit, and not have suspended the benefit. 

Sometimes the lower-earning spouse can’t claim a spousal benefit because the other spouse hasn’t claimed his or her retirement benefits. When one spouse hasn’t claimed retirement benefits yet, the other spouse is eligible only for their retirement benefit, if one was earned. 

After the other spouse claims retirement benefits, you can switch to the spousal benefit if it is higher than your retirement benefit. The switch is supposed to occur automatically when SSA receives your spouse’s benefit application, but it doesn’t always happen. Know the rules and monitor the situation so you can notify SSA if the benefit change doesn’t occur. 

Both spouses can claim their own retirement benefits when those benefits are higher than either’s spousal benefits. 

The spousal benefit is up to 50% of your spouse’s full retirement benefit (FRB). The FRB is the monthly benefit the spouse would receive by claiming at full retirement age. 

If your spouse waits until after full retirement age to claim retirement benefits, he or she will receive more than the FRB. But you’ll receive only 50% of the FRB as the spousal benefit. 

Spousal benefits can be claimed as early as age 62, just as retirement benefits can. 

But if you claim either your retirement benefit or the spousal benefit before your full retirement age (not your spouse’s full retirement age), then the benefit will be reduced. For example, if you claim retirement benefits before your full retirement age, you’ll receive less than your FRB. 

And if you later switch to spousal benefits, the spousal benefit will be reduced to less than 50% of your spouse’s FRB because you claimed retirement benefits early. 

There’s no benefit to waiting to claim spousal benefits after your full retirement age. Unlike retirement benefits, spousal benefits don’t increase for each month you delay receiving them after full retirement age through 70. 

Suppose the wife is the lower-earning spouse and claims retirement benefits at age 64. Her full retirement age is 66 and six months. The retirement benefit she receives will be less than her FRB, because she claimed early. 

Her husband claims his retirement benefit at age 70, maximizing the benefit. The wife is past her full retirement age at this point and switches to a spousal benefit because it is higher than her retirement benefit. 

The wife’s spousal benefit will be less than 50% of the husband’s FRB because she claimed retirement benefits before her full retirement age.

SPONSORED

How to Buy Space X Today, Before Its June IPO

Veteran tech trader Bryan Perry has found a backdoor way to get into SpaceX before its June IPO. Wall Street estimates that Elon Musk’s space interest could be worth up to $1.5 trillion when all is said and done – making it one of the largest companies in the world from day one. If you’d like to find out how to position yourself TODAY ahead of this massive event scheduled for June, then click here now.CLICK HERE…Now, let’s switch to survivor’s benefits, sometimes known as widow’s benefits. 

Survivor’s benefits are paid based on the deceased spouse’s earnings record and can be claimed as early as age 60. 

The amount paid as a survivor’s benefit can be complicated and depends on both when the deceased claimed his or her retirement benefits and the survivor’s age when claiming the benefits. 

Only one Social Security benefit is paid to the household after a spouse passes away. The survivor receives the higher of his or her retirement benefit and the survivor’s benefit. 

The general rule is the survivor’s benefit is the retirement benefit the deceased was receiving at the time of his or her demise. But there are exceptions. 

If the deceased was not receiving retirement benefits on the date of death, then the survivor’s benefit is what the deceased would have been entitled to at full retirement age or at the time of death, if it is later than full retirement age. 

For example, if the deceased hadn’t reached full retirement age, the base survivor’s benefit is the deceased’s FRB. But if the deceased lived past full retirement age, the base survivor’s benefit is the benefit he or she would have been entitled to if benefits were claimed on the date of death. 

But the survivor’s benefit is reduced below the deceased’s FRB if the deceased claimed retirement benefits before his or her full retirement age. 

That’s why in Retirement Watch, The Spotlight Series, and my books I emphasize that spouses should coordinate their benefit claiming decisions and look to the time when only one spouse is alive. They should want the survivor to receive the maximum possible benefit. 

That’s usually done by having the higher-earning spouse delay receiving his or her retirement benefit until as close to age 70 as possible. 

Survivor’s benefits have other unique rules. 

Unlike spousal benefits, the survivor’s benefit is not reduced if the survivor claimed his or her retirement benefits before full retirement age. 

Also, a survivor who is eligible for more than one type of benefit can file to claim only one benefit and later switch to the other benefit. Applying for only one benefit is particularly beneficial when the survivor is between ages 60 and 70 and definitely when the survivor is younger than full retirement age. 

For example, the survivor might claim his or her retirement benefit at age 62. After reaching full retirement age, the survivor might switch to the survivor’s benefit, which would be maximized by that point. Or the reverse strategy might be best, claiming the survivor’s benefit first and delaying the retirement benefit until full retirement age or it is maximized at age 70. 

Survivor’s benefits are maximized at the survivor’s full retirement age, and might be maximized at an earlier age, depending on when the deceased claimed retirement benefits. 

Survivors also should know that claiming survivor’s benefits based on a deceased spouse’s earnings record might not be available if they remarry before age 60. But survivor’s benefits don’t change if the new marriage occurs after age 60. 

A surviving spouse has more choices than other Social Security beneficiaries, and the decisions can alter lifetime benefits by tens of thousands of dollars. 

The options are so tricky that SSA often makes mistakes involving surviving spouses. It is important to know all the options. It is best to either work with a financial professional who has some expertise in Social Security benefits or use one of the Social Security claiming software programs available. 

Claiming either spousal or survivor’s benefits doesn’t affect the retirement benefits paid to the other spouse. Retirement benefits are based on the recipient’s earnings history. 

While spouses and others also can claim benefits based on that earnings history, those claims don’t affect the retirement benefits paid to the primary earner. 

Both spousal benefits and survivor’s benefits might be available to a divorced spouse. I’ll cover that in the future.To a better retirement,
Bob Carlson
Bob Carlson
Editor, Retirement Watch WeeklyEditor’s Note: Right before the end of his first presidential term, Donald Trump signed a key bill into law. 

One that allowed Retirees and Pre-retirees to access to monthly lifetime retirement checks. Now, this has nothing to do with their social security payments… 

In fact, retirees can collect these Trump-backed checks on top of their social security payments. Click here to learn how.

SPONSORED

Your charts tell a story. But this AI tells you the real one.

A rally that feels exhausted. A dip that looks like a buying opportunity. A chart that seems obvious. 

Surface signals mislead traders every single day. And the cost of trusting them shows up in your account by the end of the week. 

VantagePoint AI was built to see what charts cannot. It analyzes intermarket relationships across thousands of global data streams to forecast the actual direction of stocks and options, not the direction the crowd thinks they see. 

Join our next free live class and watch the AI pull back the curtain. See exactly where the market is headed over the next 72 hours and which specific setups the AI has flagged right now. 

Show me what the charts are missing.CLICK HERE…

Want More Retirement Advice?

Check out my website, RetirementWatch.com, where you’ll find hundreds of free articles covering every aspect of retirement planning.

Popular Posts:
Nine Important Things to Know Before Contributing to an IRA
How to Help Children or Grandchildren Buy a Home
Building the Complete Estate Plan
Finding Higher Returns With Low Risk

New to the Retirement Watch Community: SeniorResource.com

It’s our newest web site, along with its free companion publication, Senior Resource Today. Here you’ll find practical, and useful content focusing on the most important and often most overlooked topics in retirement today, such as Senior Housing, Aging in Place, Personal Finance, Senior Care, and a whole lot more. Visit SeniorResource.com today!

About Bob Carlson:

Bob CarlsonRobert C. Carlson is the author of the books The New Rules of Retirementand Retirement Tax Guide, editor and investment director of the popular retirement newsletter, Retirement Watch, and editor of the free weekly e-letter, Retirement Watch Weekly.  Bob is a frequent speaker at investment conferences around the country, and you can also hear Bob as a featured guest on nationally-syndicated radio shows, such as The Retirement Hour, Dateline Washington, Family News in Focus, The Michael Reagan Show, Money Matters and The Stock Doctor.

About Us:

Eagle Financial Publications is located in Rosslyn, VA. – Blocks from the Capitol. Our products have been helping investors build their wealth for several decades. Whether you’re a long-term investor or short-term trader, you’ll find the right strategy for you, including how to earn more steady income to spend now, preserve and grow your capital to enjoy later, and whatever other investment goals you have.

Visit Our Websites:

To ensure future delivery of Eagle Financial Publicationemails please add financial@info2.eaglefinancialpublications.com to your address book or contact list.

This email was sent to peterhovis@icloud.com because you are subscribed to Dividend Investor Daily. To unsubscribe from this list please click here. To stop receiving emails simply click here. If you have questions, please send them to Customer Service. View this email in your web browser.

Legal Disclaimer: Any and all communications from Eagle Products, LLC. employees should not be considered advice on finances. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized advice on finances.

Salem Media Group – Eagle Financial Publications | 1735 N Lynn St, Suite 500, Arlington, VA 22209-2016

Unknown's avatar

Published by RJ Hamster

I was born on 6 August 1956 in San Francisco, California to Janet and (the late) Richard Hovis. I grew up in Santa Monica, California where I attended elementary, junior high school, and high school (graduating in 1974), in addition to involvement in sports and recreation (Little League +, the Boy’s Club ++). Further, it was in elementary school – St. Augustine’s By-the -Sea Parish School that I found, and made the choice to truly journey with God. I attended Arizona State University from 1974 to 1977 – seeking to become an architect, however, I was not accepted, and, as such, I graduated with a Liberal Arts degree. Upon graduation from Arizona State University, I attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and studied City and Regional Planning at the Master’s level. I successfully completed one (1) year in a two (2) year program – I did not complete the Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning – due to personal reasons. I returned to Santa Monica where I started (October 1979) my career as graphic designer with Exxon Company, USA. I spent five years with Exxon Company, USA. While working with Exxon Company, USA I was accepted into architectural school – Sci-Arc in Southern California, however, I did not attend preferring to stay with Exxon.. In 1982 I married Laura Flosi and in April 1983 we had our one and only child – Lauren Alain Hovis – a gift from God. We moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1984 from Los Angeles, where I went to work as a graphic designer with Kitchell CEM (from 1985 -1987). From 1987 – 1995 I was an independent contractor, and a registered representative in mortgage finance, financial management, graphic design, and drafting. Further, I attended the University of Phoenix and successfully obtained a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) in 1982. I was also a member of the Scottsdale Jaycees, where I became very involved in community events and projects. In 1994, I accepted a cartography position with the Defense Mapping Agency in Reston, Virginia. As such, I relocated from Phoenix to Reston. In 1998, I was accepted and worked as a Visual Information Officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. In 2002, I worked as a Support Officer until my retirement (due to a need for shoulder surgery) in September 2018. Away from my Federal Government service, I have been involved in various organizations and activities in Northern Virginia. In November of 2011, I married Rebecca Ouellette in Santa Monica, California. I reside in San Tan Valley, AZ with my two hamster - Jess and Timothy, our fish, our lizard - RJ Lizard., and our cats - Pearl and Grey. As to hobbies, I enjoy playing sports, attending sporting events, mentoring individuals from financial management to hamsters, building models, photography, travel, multimedia design, managing partner for RJ Hamster, and jazz – smooth jazz to a samba or a bossa nova. Love and God Bless, Peter – aka RJ Hamster Jo hi

Leave a Comment