Modeling the survivor benefit prior to your Full Retirement Age

If you are a widow or widower, you may have the ability to claim Social Security Survivor benefits any time between age 60 and your Full Retirement Age.

In order to model the survivor benefit through your Full Retirement Age, set up a pension for the Social Security benefit you will receive between filing your claim for survivor benefits and your Full Retirement Age. Make sure you adjust the optimistic and pessimistic growth rates to match Social Security COLA assumptions and select the appropriate tax status.

Turning on your Survivor benefit at Full Retirement Age

You'll want to change the modeling at your Full Retirement Age. To model continuation of the Survivor benefit at your Full Retirement Age, follow these steps:

STEP 1: Head on over to My Plan > Income > Social Security

STEP 2: Enter your survivor benefit at your Full Retirement Age

STEP 3: Select your Full Retirement Age as your Claiming Age

STEP 4: Save

Turning on your own benefit at Full Retirement Age

You may also qualify for a retirement benefit that's more than your survivor's benefit benefit as early as age 62 or as late as age 70. First, you'll want to Talk to a Social Security representative about your options in order to determine the best strategy for your particular situation. To model switching to your own benefit follow these steps and adjust the ages as appropriate:

STEP 1: Head on over to My Plan > Income > Social Security

STEP 2: Enter your benefit at your Full Retirement Age from your Social Security Statement

STEP 3: Select your desired claiming age

STEP 4: Save