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Strategies for Claiming Social Security Benefits

Research Articles and Fact Sheets

Munnell, Alicia H. and Mauricio Soto. 2005. “Why Do Women Claim Social Security Benefits So Early?” Center for Retirement Research, 35 (October). Available at: http://crr.bc.edu/briefs/why-do-women-claim-social-security-benefits-so-early.

Shuart, Amy, David Weaver, and Kevin Whitman. 2010. “Widowed Before Retirement: Social Security Benefit Claiming Strategies.” Journal of Financial Planning 23, 4: 45-53. You may be able to access the article here.  If not, check if you may have access to this article through your local library’s online databases.

Social Security Administration.  Benefits for Children, SSA Publication No. 05-10085. Available at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/10085.html or 1-800-772-1213.

Why take voluntary distributions from retirement accounts & delay Social Security?

Lance Ritchlin, Why 401k And Social Security Coordination Is Critically Important, 401kspecialist.com, http://bit.ly/Why401k (This article is targeted at financial advisers, but you may still find some of the information helpful.)

James I. Mahaney and Peter C. Carlson, Rethinking Social Security Claiming in a 401(k) World, Pension Research Council Working Paper, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Available at http://bit.ly/RethinkSocSec. (This paper was written before the 2016 changes in Social Security claiming strategies and therefore contains some dated information. However, it is still the most thorough discussion on this topic that I am aware of.)

Benefit Calculators on the Social Security Website
Commercial Social Security planning tools for evaluating different claiming strategies

Search online for “Social Security calculators.” Try more than one, to see if they agree on which claiming strategy will work best in your situation. Check that the tools you use take all the factors of your situation into consideration. For example, if you have a pension from a job where you did not pay into Social Security, look for a calculator that asks for information about that pension. If you will have a dependent child at the time you file for Social Security, look for a calculator that asks if you have dependents who may qualify for a benefit based on your work record.

One calculator that I have used and have seen recommended frequently is http://www.maximizemysocialsecurity.com/ ($40 fee/year). This tool should be able to handle any type of claiming situation that you have. If you’re still a couple of years or more from filing, you could start with an excellent free tool called Open Social Security. It is very user-friendly and gives output that is easy to understand.

Other Recommended Tools

If you’re a visual person or like using flowcharts to figure things out, you might like this set of tools created by a company called fpPathfinder. That company licenses its tools to financial planners, who in turn can make them available on their websites. For example, you’ll find several flowcharts about different Social Security benefits and rules at https://retirementplanningeducation.com/more-free-stuff. Scroll down to the Social Security tools. Or use these links to the individual flowcharts:

Am I Eligible for Social Security Benefits as a Spouse? (link)

Am I Eligible for Social Security Benefits If I Have Been Divorced? (link)

  • Ignore the comment, “This could be reduced if you have a government pension” because those pensions no longer no longer have any impact on your Social Security benefits since the enactment of the FAIR Act. This flowchart has not yet been updated to reflect that change.

Am I Eligible for Social Security Benefits as a Surviving Spouse? (link)

Will My Social Security Benefits Be Reduced? (link)

  • Answer “No” to the question, “Do you have a pension from work not covered by Social Security, such as Federal Civil Service?”  because those pensions no longer have any impact on your Social Security benefits since the enactment of the FAIR Act. This flowchart has not yet been updated to reflect that change.