SS amount if Ex dies (welfare, accident, payment, wife)
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Divorce attorneys aren't always the best when it comes to stuff like that and accounting issues (if ever a next time, get an attorney with a good accounting background). After my divorce several years ago, I needed a financial advisor to help me sort through transferring stock, etc, into my own account, and he discovered that my ex had double taxed me (everything was written out in percentages, not exact $ amounts). Fortunately, my ex finally agreed to pay me the difference without having to go back to court. Had I not consulted with a financial advisor, I would have never known I was underpaid.
I consider myself fortunate in that I have that same financial advisor whom I see once a year to go over my IRA and company 401K, and any changes in my circumstances. He has also advised me on SS issues ... 1/2 of my ex's SS when he retires (or if I remarry, I can still collect on ex's if his is the higher amount), and SS will automatically make the adjustments. As far as 100% of SS, I believe only if he dies (but I'm not quite sure, wasn't paying too much attention last time we discussed SS). I will definitely ask when I see him next time.
Up to 1/2 of your ex's SS if he is eligible for benefits and if the benefits on your record would be less than 1/2 of his at FRA. He does not need to actually retire.
If you remarry you are not eligible to claim divorced spouse benefits on your ex's record unless you divorce the current spouse or the current spouse dies. And no, Social Security will not "automatically" make these adjustments.
Should the first wife be penalized because her former husband is a serial getting married sort and has married two more times?
Let us rephrase that.
Should a current wife receive spousal and/or survivor benefits? No length of marriage required to draw spousal benefits. Bonus point: Marry chickee baby and after 9 months, she can claim survivor's benefits. Really?!
All kidding aside, some member(s) of Congress proposed eliminating the spousal benefit because it was asserted that only the well-off could afford a stay at home spouse. No one mentioned whether that would also apply to the divorced "stayed at home" spouse.
In reality, very few men have more than 1 ex-spouse to whom they were married for ten years or more. In fact, in all my years of practicing both social security and family law, I have yet to find one.
If the husband files early the wife can get up to 1/2 the early benefit.
The ex wife can get up to 1/2 the full benefit even if the ex husband filed early as long as she herself is full retirement age.
Other wise the ex gets an age reduction.
In this case the ex wife gets the better deal.
Now,when the exhusband dies things change to survivor benefits . Both the ex wife and the wife get the benefit the ex husband got. If he filed early both get that reduced benefit.
If both the ex or the wife are not full retirement age the benefit gets a reduced even more.
Filing early coupled with younger wives can have horrible consequences when it comes to survivor benefits.
That is my understanding as well. The rules for divorced spouse benefits were modified in 1979 and divorced survivor benefits were not available until 1984. The delay in passing the right to survivor's benefit may explain the discrepancy in the benefits.
A younger wife is no different than a single woman except that she may one day qualify for a survivor's benefit. She should not file for early benefits unless absolutely necessary and she should continue to work until FRA if needed and able to do so.
Up to 1/2 of your ex's SS if he is eligible for benefits and if the benefits on your record would be less than 1/2 of his at FRA. Right.
He does not need to actually retire. If you remarry you are not eligible to claim divorced spouse benefits on your ex's record unless you divorce the current spouse or the current spouse dies. And no, Social Security will not "automatically" make these adjustments. I am sure I was told otherwise; I'll have to check into that again. Thanks for the info.
Last edited by smpliving; 03-09-2013 at 10:01 PM..
Great trick since he had to be married to each of them for ten years. This was discussed in the course I took last year. Galled alot of people in the class especially the part about they never had to have worked. Once couple said they knew a woman who had never worked and been married multiple times as was waiting to see which spouse had the highest benefit. Another woman was upset because her husband was much older and had been a stay at home husband/dad and had no SS on his own and was probably going to have passed before she reached retirement age.
I cannot imagine getting married to someone and sticking around for over 10 years because you're thinking about Social Security. I mean, the maximum any spouse can collect is 50% if the ex is still alive, and that's at the full retirement age and only if her benefit is lower. I honestly don't know a single woman who would plot to marry a man to get $1,250 a month at age 66. (This is assuming the man was successful and would earn the maximum benefit which was $2,513 in 2012)
My Lord - if you're going to marry for money, at least aim a lot higher than that!
Last edited by justNancy; 03-09-2013 at 11:34 PM..
Should a current wife receive spousal and/or survivor benefits? No length of marriage required to draw spousal benefits. Bonus point: Marry chickee baby and after 9 months, she can claim survivor's benefits. Really?!
All kidding aside, some member(s) of Congress proposed eliminating the spousal benefit because it was asserted that only the well-off could afford a stay at home spouse. No one mentioned whether that would also apply to the divorced "stayed at home" spouse.
In reality, very few men have more than 1 ex-spouse to whom they were married for ten years or more. In fact, in all my years of practicing both social security and family law, I have yet to find one.
polygamy is to many wives and monogamy is to many wives. lol
Consider the salary of a clerk in the SS office and compare that to the fee/salary of a quality CPA and you have your answer. NEG part of the problem with SS as you know from other post and forums there are thousands of possible answers. It is probably very difficult to get the right answer if you aren't sure what questions to ask and how to ask them. MathJak did a thread awhile back about software designed to help people through the SS maze. Most of those programs have prompts to help steer you to the right questions for the software to answer. That might be a possible in between step. You know what you want to find out but asking it the right way can be difficult a lot of times when you don't know all of the parameters the person behind the counter is trying to sort through. I recently took a retirement course and this along with other SS topics were covered. However from the specific questions asked it was obvious that each question needed a thought out answer. Seminars I have attended made it easy for most of us but for many they needed more specific advice.
So an SS-specializing CPA would be thoroughly versed in all the laws of social security? Or are there other specialists going by some other name? (I wouldn't trust my BIL-CPA to know, though he's good at financial planning)
Last edited by RiverBird; 03-10-2013 at 07:44 AM..
Should the first wife be penalized because her former husband is a serial getting married sort and has married two more times?
Yes she picked him to marry, bad choices have consequences in the real world....liberal world is another story apparently. Whose fault is it and who should make up the SS shorfall for this? Her ex husband? Me? tax the wealthy to pay for it? It is her fault and his fault more than anyone else. Consequences are avoided by liberals and society taxed to pay for this attitude... why do jobs leave liberal states? Taxes. Why will jobs continue to lease the US? Taxes.
Yes she picked him to marry, bad choices have consequences in the real world....liberal world is another story apparently. Whose fault is it and who should make up the SS shorfall for this? Her ex husband? Me? tax the wealthy to pay for it? It is her fault and his fault more than anyone else. Consequences are avoided by liberals and society taxed to pay for this attitude... why do jobs leave liberal states? Taxes. Why will jobs continue to lease the US? Taxes.
Well your point is well made. I will say though that it has nothing to do with the original post. Ranting and raving on political matters is best done in the correct forum.
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This was discussed in the course I took last year. Galled alot of people in the class especially the part about they never had to have worked. Once couple said they knew a woman who had never worked and been married multiple times as was waiting to see which spouse had the highest benefit. Another woman was upset because her husband was much older and had been a stay at home husband/dad and had no SS on his own and was probably going to have passed before she reached retirement age.
