Defining Spousal Social Security

When Neither Spouse has Claimed their Benefit

When the Lower Earning Spouse Plans to Claim their Own Benefit Prior to FRA

When the Lower Earning Spouse Plans to Claim their Own Benefit at FRA

When One Spouse Has No Work History

When One Spouse's benefit is impacted by GPO or WEP

When One Spouse has Already Claimed their Benefit

Deemed Filing Rule

Where Can I View my Social Security Benefits?

The planner computes the Full Retirement Age (FRA) for both you and your spouse (if applicable) from your data, and you will input the Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) and the age at which you claim. Using this data, the planner will apply early retirement reductions or delayed retirement credits to your PIA to determine your benefits at claiming age.

The planner will also automatically calculate spousal benefits. For you and your spouse, the tool will use your own benefit or your spousal benefit, whichever is greater.

Additionally, at longevity age of the first spouse, the model will assume the surviving spouse will receive 100% of the deceased’s benefit, if greater.

In a married couple, the Social Security benefits are rarely equal. That is, one spouse’s benefit will typically be higher than the other. When the lower earning spouse's benefit is less than 50% of the higher earning spouse's benefit, the lower earning spouse may receive 50% of the higher earning spouse's benefit or their own benefit, whichever is higher. Keep in mind that the higher earning spouse must claim their own benefit before the spousal benefit is available.

The Planner automatically model spousal benefits:

The Planner will automatically apply the spousal benefit on the date the higher earning spouse claims their benefit when it is advantageous to the couple.

To model this strategy, you do not need to make any adjustments. Simply enter the lower earning spouse's benefit at Full Retirement Age as reported by the SSA and the Planner will calculate and apply the appropriate amount.

For this to work, the lower-earning spouse's Social Security selection must be set in the future and cannot be set to "will not claim" or "already collecting" as this will stop all Social Security benefits from being modeled for the lower-earning spouse.

Depending on the age of each spouse, some couples find that it is advantageous for the lower earning spouse to claim an individual benefit prior to their FRA, and change to the spousal benefit when the higher earner claims.

The amount the lower earning spouse will receive as a spousal benefit when the higher earning spouse claims their benefit is often less than 50% of the higher earner's FRA benefit as a result of claiming early. We recommend you verify this information by looking up your benefit information on the Social Security Administration website, www.ssa.gov or calling the SSA.

This image details the reduction:

The Planner will automatically apply the spousal benefit on the date the higher earning spouse claims their benefit when it is advantageous to do so.

To model this strategy, you do not need to make any adjustments. Simply enter the lower earning spouse's benefit at Full Retirement Age as reported by the SSA and the Planner will calculate and apply the appropriate amount.

Depending on the age of each spouse, some couples find that it is advantageous for the lower earning spouse to claim an individual benefit at their FRA, and change to the spousal benefit at when the higher earner claims.

The amount the lower earning spouse will receive as a spousal benefit when the higher earning spouse claims their benefit will be 50% of the higher earner's FRA benefit. We recommend you verify this information by looking up your benefit information on the Social Security Administration website, www.ssa.gov or calling the SSA.

The Planner will automatically apply the spousal benefit on the date the higher earning spouse claims their benefit when it is advantageous.

To model this strategy, you do not need to make any adjustments. Simply enter the lower earning spouse's benefit at Full Retirement Age as reported by the SSA and the Planner will calculate and apply the appropriate amount.

In the case that the lower-earning spouse has no work history and is not entitled to a Social Security benefit on their own work history but can claim spousal benefits, the lower-earning spouse's Social Security selection must be set in the future and cannot be set to "will not claim" as this will stop all Social Security benefits from being modeled for the lower-earning spouse. A value of $1 should be entered for their benefit at FRA and the claiming date should be the same as the higher earner.

This will model them as not collecting benefits until spousal benefits kick in.

When one spouse's benefit will be lowered by an offset, the spousal benefit will be overstated by the software. In this case we recommend the following steps:

STEP 1: Navigate to My Plan > Income > Social Security and enter the Social Security benefit of the spouse without the reduction as normal.

STEP 2: Navigate to My Plan > Income > Social Security and Select "Your spouse won't receive social security benefits."

STEP 3: Navigate to My Plan > Income > Pension and enter a pension in the amount of the reduced benefit of the spouse with the reduction. Enter this pension from claiming age of the spouse with the reduced benefit through the longevity age of the spouse without the reduction. Ensure that the pension is subject to Federal tax only. Use the same COLA as you do for Social Security.

STEP 4: Navigate to My Plan > Income > Pension and enter another pension at the longevity age of the spouse without the reduction from that time through her longevity age. The amount should be the benefit of the spouse without the reduction. This is the survivor benefit, 100% of the benefit of the spouse without the reduction. Ensure that the pension is subject to Federal tax only. Use the same COLA as you do for Social Security. Enter the pension from that time through longevity age.

STEP 5: Update the pension dates as you explore different scenarios.

OPTION 1: Set their claiming age to next month in order to capture the spousal benefit. However, when next month rolls around, you'll have to push the date up again.

A reduction in spousal benefits will be applied if spousal benefits are applied prior to the lower-earning spouse reaching their FRA, but no "bonus" will be applied if they begin after their FRA.

OPTION 2: Set their claiming age to the same month/year as the primary earner. Enter $0 for their FRA benefit and the software will automatically model spousal benefits when the primary earner claims. Then, add the spouse's current benefit as a pension until the claiming date.

See the Milestones Report for a narrative of your Social Security benefit and other important plan events.

You can view the combined benefits on your Lifetime Income Projection Chart by hovering over the Social Security benefits after both spouse's claiming ages. You can also view the combined benefits on your Insights > Income and Expenses > Estimated Income, Drawdowns, and Debt Chart. You may want to change the Social Security COLA to 0% and view the amounts without inflation. Please remember to change the COLA back after this experiment.

PRO TIP: If you would like to view the exact annual or monthly amounts the Planner is projecting for Spousal Social Security in your Plan, follow these steps:

Keep in mind that you may be subject to the “deemed” filing rule. This rule states that if the higher earning spouse is already receiving Social Security when the lower earner claims their benefits, the lower earning spouse is automatically “deemed” to be applying for spousal benefits if they are entitled to them. In this scenario the spouse doesn’t have the ability to wait and switch.

Your Social Security can also be seen in the Insights > Income and Expenses > Estimated Income, Drawdowns, and Debt Chart.

Use the pencil icon to edit back to the Social Security setup and press "No" when asked whether you expect to receive Social Security. See a video demonstration here.