From the Elder Law Studies eJournal
American Bar Association – Section of Taxation, News Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 1, Fall 2010
FRANCINE J. LIPMAN, Chapman University – School of Law
Email: lipman@chapman.edu
JAMES E. WILLIAMSON, San Diego State University – College of Business Administration
Email: james.williamson@sdsu.edu
As the country and courts continue to debate the importance of marriage in a variety of contexts, when determining Social Security benefits it is clear that marriage matters. Marriage matters for Social Security benefits planning because of meaningful spouse and survivor benefits. Given the broad and deep devastation of a record recession on retirement and saving accounts, including the continuing demise of defined benefit plans with joint and survivor benefits protection, Social Security benefits, generally, and spouse and survivor benefits, specifically, have become and will continue to be a more significant percentage of retirees’ income. As a result of the interplay between recently phased in changes under 1983 legislation and amendments under the Senior Citizens’ Freedom to Work Act of 2000, it is critical that Social Security benefits timing analysis becomes a more important part of many retirement plans. In this article, we describe how to use these changes to devise strategies to maximize Social Security spouse and survivor benefits.