Social Security: A Widow and Widower - YouTube

Today's lesson is about Widows and Widowers on  Social Security and it's really about Spouse  

Benefits. And why we're talking about this  specifically, is we've just had two clients  

that we've been able to help them  with their Social Security decisions,  

and really to claim on their deceased Spouse.  And it's made a big amount of money to them over  

their lifetime and it was pretty significant.  And in both cases the Social Security office  

had given them what really amounts to incorrect  information. Yeah, I mean we get a lot of people  

that come in, having talked to Social Security  already, and have some preconceived notion of  

what they're wanting to do with Social Security.  And sometimes it's right, and a lot of times it's  

not quite right. And so Hans often times will say  and I think it's good good advice is that, ‘Social  

Security gives you information. We can give you  advice of what to do with that information.’ And  

so one of the big takeaways that we want to get  across is that Social Security- the administration  

themselves- is probably not the best place to  get your information and advice on where, and the  

strategies to use in terms of filing for Social  Security. So every new client that comes into us,  

we solve the Social Security problem for them, or  at least give them advice as to when to file. And  

for anybody that's married or been married, the  spouse's Social Security Benefit is an issue, and  

it gets a little bit complicated. And then when  we do Estate Planning in these Financial Plans.  

We have to deal for a married couple, with  inevitably that one of them is going to die first.  

We don't know which one of that's going to be  and then we need to talk about Social Security  

after that time. So we're we're dealing with, you  know, a Widow or a Widower issue in all cases.  

Even for Single people that have been  married in the past. So today's lesson,  

we're going to zero in, and we've got a couple of  examples where I brought both of these clients in  

and I was serving them right from the beginning.  And then I went to Tom about them, and then  

ultimately Tom was the one that served them  on the Social Security part of the deal.  

So the first client up here is Sally, and she  is 65½ now. She came to me about a year ago. She  

was listening to me on the radio on Finishing Well  and had been for years. And thinking she needed to  

retire, she wanted to retire. And you know, first,  it was what about Health Insurance and Medicare  

and how is she going to live, and all that  kind of stuff. And as we, then she did retire,  

and we put together a plan, but we got in..  What happened, is is that she was a Single lady,  

had been Single for many years and her ex-Husband  passed away during the Financial Planning process.  

And that's when I turned her over to Tom. Sure,  and so when he brought her in, we were talking  

about all her situation, her finances, and  things. And he brought up the fact that her  

ex-Husband had passed away. And I said, ‘Well  let's, let's stop there for a second.’ I had run  

into this previously and really how I came to know  this was an option was actually by accident. Is,  

we had a, I was on the phone with a client and  they were asking about Social Security and they  

brought up something that their friend had done.  And I said, ‘Well that doesn't quite sound right.’  

And I explained the rules.. To to give you guys a  little bit of a history lesson, is back in 2015,  

Congress passed a law that changed a lot  of the strategies around how people were  

using Social Security. So it used to be that most  Spouses could do what's called File and Suspend,  

or Restricted Application. And that law changed  it to where anyone born after January, 1st 1954-  

it removed that as an option. But they preserved  the ability for Widows or Widowers to do that. And  

so I didn't know that and this was a couple years  ago when this client was telling me about it. So  

I got researching, looked into it, and it's like  discovered that that's actually you can still do  

that. You can file a Restricted Application, where  you're only filing for the Spousal Benefit and not  

your own benefit, if you were born after January,  1st of 1954. And you are a Widow and or a Widower  

filing on the deceased Spouse's or ex-Spouse's  Benefit. And so when Hans brought this case in,  

she was really needing this money and was thinking  about, ‘Should I take, her, my own Social Security  

now? Should I wait? You know by waiting it grows  a little bit more.’ And I said, ‘Well hold on.  

We can file for the deceased Spouse's Benefit, her  ex-Spouse's Benefit, because he has since passed.  

And delay her own check and get a higher  amount.’ And so we have the amounts here. And so  

at her Full Retirement Age (FRA), if she waited  to her Full Retirement Age, she would get  

$1,779 by waiting. And so she was deciding,  ‘Should I wait till then or should I not?’  

Pretty much made that decision that she was going  to wait to collect.Right. And she was just going  

to live off the 401K and some possible part-time  work to do that. And that's when you came in.  

Yeah and so what we brought up this strategy of  that she could actually file for her Spousal,  

her Spousal Benefit off the her deceased  ex-Husband's check. And she actually came back,  

we proposed this to her, and she came back and and  fought us a little bit on it. Not aggressively,  

but she said, ‘I already talked to Social  Security. They told me that's not allowed.’  

And I said, ‘I hear you. I know this is true. I've  done this with other clients, this will work.’ And  

so we went a couple rounds. I had, I did a little  convincing and I said, ‘Well how about this? Let's  

just try it. If it doesn't work you can tell them  no, no, or no matter, I don't want to take it.’  

If it does work you're going to get this check,  while you're delaying yours. So she agreed. She  

filed for Benefits and was approved. And so now  she's getting a check for $1,975- which is higher  

than what her Full Retirement Benefit would be.  And she gets the added benefit that her own check  

is growing, and as it's Earning those delayed  Retirement Credits, where she can wait till 70  

and get $2,400 at that point. So not only is she  getting a check now, where she wasn't going to  

get a check, because she had decided to wait till  Full Retirement Age. She's getting a higher check,  

and she has the benefit of waiting to receive that  higher check from her own record at 70. And so  

this made a huge difference for her, and she  was so thankful that we went through this.  

And sometimes it really does take us pushing a  little bit, because they've heard something from  

Social Security that's just, is incorrect. And  you know a lot of the, what the Social Security,  

a lot of the people at Social Security, what  they're quoting is that rule that changed. Where  

if you were born after 1954, and I'm sure this is  what happened, as they looked at her situation.  

Her Birth Date was after that date. They said,  ‘You can't do this anymore.’ And so, you know,  

make sure you're getting a second opinion when it  comes to some complicated strategies like that.  

Well yeah, let's look at the numbers on  her again, is. First of all she was getting  

nothing because she would have gotten about  $1,500 a month, but she decided to wait a year  

to go to Full Retirement Age. So that  $1,779 was in the future for her,  

with a whole year of not getting a check.  Then she filed on the ex-Spouse and she got,  

she's getting $1,975 and she's going to get that  every month presumably for the rest of her life.  

But then, what's going on, because  she filed a Restriction Application-  

her’s- what would have been the $1,779 is still  growing. And it's just going to continue to grow  

to $2,408, and then when she's right at 70, she's  going to file and she's going to get a raise then.  

And so what this really means to her is a lot less  Withdrawals on her 401K to live. And she doesn't  

have a lot of money in the 401K. We made a big  difference for her and she's so very very thankful  

for it. Now just after, we did that about two  months ago, and by the way she got a back check.  

Social Security paid her a few months of the $1975  in arrears. She was really thankful for that.  

Now on comes, I'm going to talk a little bit  about Walt. And so Walt is the guy that I met, um,  

just he watched all these YouTubes. And he gave us  a call and he's interested in Financial Planning.  

He's turning 65, going on Medicare, kind of  the whole thing is everything else. And then  

when I get, I really had this sense of just  profound sadness that I got even before he  

told me the story that his wife passed before the  Pandemic hit. But, just right in January of 2020,  

and very sad. And so he was off of work  during that time, she was actually getting  

some Social Security Disability Benefits  for a couple three months back in 2019.  

And he was able to go back and look at what that  Check was- which was helpful. And he hadn't even  

thought about Widower Benefits at all. Even,  despite this guy's watched a lot of YouTubes,  

he's a pretty smart guy. I've done a lot of  researching and so I'm not going to talk that  

much about Benefits for the wife. And so  we're really talking about his situation,  

how much he's got in his 401K, in his IRA, uh any  Pension that he might get. And then he was 64½,  

he was ready to file for his Social Security two  years early at $2,643 a month because he hasn't  

worked since January 2020. I mean, he just did  some unemployment during the, during the Pandemic,  

and he just hadn't gone back to work. He's  been living off of Savings, and so he thought,  

‘Well I might as well just go ahead and take this  $2,643, and even though it's less than I will get,  

I don't know how long I'm going to live.’ And I'm  just kind of listening to that and I'm thinking,  

‘You know, boy I'm not going to push him  back on that, but I hate to see people  

giving away Lifetime Benefits just because  they want to get it a little bit early.’  

And so I brought the whole case to Tom because  I didn't want to start talking about it, because  

Tom's the expert on this stuff. And so Tom looked  at the whole thing, and we we did all the math  

and we guesstimated that the check that he can  start collecting now is on as his Widower benefit  

is $1,936. And then he filed a Restricted  Application based upon taking the Widower Benefit.  

And so he's not taking this, he's going to get a  smaller amount, but his Check is going to continue  

to grow all the way to 70. And he's going to get  $3,831 on his own benefit starting at 70- which is  

5½ years from now. I mean this made a big  difference for this guy and he was able to,  

he said, ‘Let me go on and try to do this online  myself.’ Because he already had a “My Social  

Security Account” SSA.GOV. And he had already,  that's where he got these numbers from, and then,  

‘Let me go in and try to do it. And then I'll  call you if I need you.’ And then he asked Tom.  

Tom said that in the memo for Sally we're in the  area where the box online, where you can type,  

Tom helped Sally do it. He just sent her a  copy or sent Walt a copy of Sally's wording-  

essentially and removed her name. And Walt  talked to us a day or two later, and he says,  

‘I was able to apply.’ And so we think this is  going to happen, we don't have any reason to  

not to, um. This is this is great. And so  how this is relevant to you folks that have  

haven't filed yet, your Spouse is not Deceased,  and you hope they don't become Deceased anytime  

soon, I mean you say, ‘Well how's this video  relevant to me?’ Well you need to learn about  

Spousal Benefits, period. If you're in the Ready  to File Status, sooner or later, either you  

or your Spouse is going to deal with this from an  Estate Planning issue. And you may very well have  

brothers, sisters, friends like this, that are  like Walt and Sally. That had no idea this,  

they had no idea, and they knew that their  Spousal their Deceased Spouse's Benefit was  

less than theirs. So they're thinking, ‘How could  I benefit from that?’ Not realizing about the  

Restricted Application and their Benefit growing.  I will make a couple points, too, on the ex-Spouse  

situation. So there's a couple rules around that.  If you are Divorced and you get Remarried before  

age 60, this strategy is no longer going to be  eligible for you. And so you need to be, you know,  

you shouldn't make the marriage’s decisions  around that, but just know that that's out there.  

In other words, if you were Divorced many years  ago, got Remarried, and then that ex-Spouse  

passed away, but you've been Remarried,  this likely is no longer an option for you.  

And then to Han’s point, there is specific  language you want to use on the application. It's  

in a box, there's a Section you can leave Remarks  to as part of the Application. And so really  

get some help with that, because if you go get  this wrong, they're going to file for the wrong  

Benefit. And you're going to miss out on a window  of Benefits you could have been receiving, and so  

I think those are some things to keep in mind.  And if you just have some questions and want to  

call us, you just reach out to us and we'll help  walk you through what that might look like. Yeah,  

that's great. So I'm Hans Scheil, CFP. I'm Tom  Griffith, CFP. Thank you very much for listening.