The Credit Professional Winter 2018 Dec_2018_magazine | Page 6

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are not eligible for delayed
retirement credits, so there is
no incentive to defer these
benefits beyond your FRA.
The rub, however, is that your
spouse must be receiving
retirement or disability benefits
in order for you to apply.
Spousal benefits may also be
paid to a qualifying ex-spouse,
if the marriage lasted 10 years,
you are currently unmarried,
and your ex-spouse is entitled
to Social Security retirement
benefits. If you remarry, you
will no longer be eligible for
these benefits until your
marriage ends. Finally, unlike
spousal benefits for currently
married couples, there is no
requirement that your
ex-spouse be claiming benefits
for you to qualify.
Restricted Applications:
Get It While It Lasts
Much has been made of the
elimination of the “file and
suspend” strategy, which
allowed both spouses to
simultaneously defer their
retirement benefits while one
spouse could collect a spousal
benefit based on the earnings
record of the other. The
Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015
eliminated this strategy, but
temporarily left in place the
ability for those born on or
before January 1, 1954, to file
a restricted application for
spousal benefits.
Qualifying individuals that
are currently married, or are
divorced and eligible for a
benefit based on their
ex-spouse’s earnings record,
and having attained their full
retirement age, can file a
The Credit Professional
Survivor Benefits
If your spouse has passed
away, you may be eligible to
collect Social Security
surviving spouse benefits. This
benefit may commence as early
as age 60 (earlier if disabled),
and may be filed for separately
from your retirement benefit.
restricted application for
spousal benefits. Their own
retirement benefits will
continue to earn delayed
retirement credits until they
attain age 70. It’s important to
note that if you are currently
married your spouse must file
for their retirement benefits for
you to be eligible to apply for
spousal benefits. In the case of
an ex-spouse, their former
spouse must have attained
age 62, but there is no
requirement that they file for
their retirement benefits.
When filing a restricted
application for benefits, it is
absolutely critical for the
individual filing to have
achieved full retirement age.
Early filing will run afoul of the
“deemed filing rule,” which says
you are filing for all benefits
that you are deemed eligible
to receive, thus an early
application for spousal benefits
would also be an early
application for your own
retirement benefits.
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Surviving spouses are thus
eligible to file a restricted
application for a surviving
spouse benefit and delay filing
for their retirement benefits.
The ability to do this was not
impacted by the Bipartisan
Budget Act of 2015. Those that
file prior to their FRA are
subject to a reduction in
benefits (though the formula
used is different) and any
income earned in excess of
the prevailing limits will cause
a reduction in benefits.
In the case of someone whose
own retirement benefit will be
larger than their surviving
spouse benefit, they may collect
the survivor’s benefit (early or
at their FRA) and defer their
own retirement benefit and
earn delayed retirement credits.
Details Matter
Social Security filing strategies
can become quite complex,
and understanding how to
properly file for multiple
benefits will help avoid
unintended consequences.
Gassman Financial Group
www.gassmanfg.com
December 2018