How Long Does the Social Security Survivor Benefit Last

Author:

Liz Hand

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Subtitles:

Please say forever. Hey there, welcome back to my channel. When your spouse passes away, you may wonder how long social security will be in place for you, on your spouse's record. Well, that depends on a couple of items. And we'll get into that on today's video. However, before we get into that, don't forget to subscribe for a regular pleasant financial conversation. When your spouse passes away, one of the first things that you're trying to figure out is how much income do I have to live on? From where does it come? And how long will I have that income? And if you looked at my previous episode of this pleasant financial conversations, you will see that we are not able to stack incomes on top of each other, for social security purposes. You can't take your benefit and your late spouse's benefit at the same time. However, you can do a switching strategy. But how long does that survivor benefit last? Well, the short answer is, as long as you are living, that benefit will be there. However, we're going to break it up again into the three different sections of time. So age 70 or older, between age 60 and 70 and below age 60. Oh, I forgot to say that, okay. If you are older than age 70, Social Security Administration will automatically increase your benefit to whosever is higher. So if that is your survivor benefit, that survivor benefit will last with you as long as you are living, even if you get remarried. If you are between the ages of 60 and 70, your survivor benefit will last as long as you are living. Even if you get remarried. However, the caveat is that if you decide to switch to your personal record, your personal benefit, then that survivor benefit will turn off. Because as we said, in the last video, you can't collect two benefits at the same time. If you are under the age of 60 and you have a child in the home, you'll be receiving a benefit on behalf of the child until that child turns 16. And then the benefit goes away for a period of time. This is casually called the widow's gap. Between when your child turns 16, and when you turn age 60. Once you turn 60, so long as you are not married on that snapshot date of your birthday of turning 60, then you are able to collect that survivor benefit, and it will last for the rest of your life, so long as you're living, even if you get married on the day after your 60th birthday. Highly recommend that you wait to get married until after age 60, if you're really close to your 60th birthday. All right friends, that's all I have for today. Thank you so much for tuning in. I appreciate it as always. If you are stepping into the driver's seat with your finances and trying to navigate social security and your investments after a spouse has passed away, I'd love to have a conversation with you and help you get everything mapped out and in order, so that it can serve you best. If you would like to do that, you're welcome to go to my website, www.pleasantwealth.com and begin a pleasant financial conversation. But until next time, you take care.