How divorce affects your ex's Social Security benefits
Q: My ex-husband (we were married for 18 years) has remarried, as have I. If I were to apply for ex-spousal benefits will that diminish any payment of benefits to his current family? I would not apply if this is the case. If he has not applied to receive Social Security benefits (he’s 67 now) can I still apply for them? Do I need to be 65 or older to apply? I am 59. — Jane Ager, Midlothian, Va.
A: If you remarry, you generally cannot collect benefits on your former spouse's record unless your later marriage ends (whether by death, divorce or annulment), according to the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) website.
“To get ex-spousal benefits while your former spouse is alive, you have to be single,” says Andy Landis, author of Social Security: The Inside Story. “So you can’t get ex-spousal benefits right now, while you’re married. Check with the Social Security Administration if things change, especially if you’re again single (widowed or divorced).”
Getting remarried? Get a financial plan first
Also, if you had been able to apply for divorced spouse benefits, you wouldn't have had to worry about diminishing any payment of benefits to his current family. The amount of benefits you'd get has no effect on the amount your ex-spouse or his or her current spouse may receive.
Says Landis: “If you got ex-spouse benefits it would not reduce payments to your ex or his current family. You have to be 62 to get ex-spouse benefits. And you can still get spousal benefits even if he does not get his own Social Security, provided you’ve been divorced at least two years. There are different rules if your former spouse is deceased, so check with SSA.”
What happens to Social Security benefit when your ex dies
The harder question to answer is when you should apply for Social Security benefit. The good news: Your new husband (though we don’t have enough details) and you might have some time to plan when and how to claim. Online tools such as those found at AARP.org and FinancialEngines.com.
The decision, by the way, should not be made in a vacuum. It requires taking stock of your household’s essential and discretionary expenses in retirement, and how those expenses will change over the course of your lifetime. And it requires taking stock of all your household’s sources of income, be it from assets in your retirement accounts, earned income, pensions, and Social Security. Once you have a sense of how much retirement will cost and how you’ll pay for those expenses, you’ll be in a better position to decide when to file (you could do so from 62 to 70) and whether to file on your own work record or for spousal benefits based on your new husband’s work record.
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Robert Powell is editor of Retirement Weekly, contributes regularly to USA TODAY, The Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch. Got questions about money? Emailrpowell@allthingsretirement.com.