Death Benefits

S.S.I
I would call the I.R.S.

Re: Death Benefits


Several million people have. Seems perfectly normal to me.

When someone files for Social Security they can file based on their own lifetime earnings or the earnings of spouses they. had. If someone is divorced they can still qualify under their former spouse's benefits as long as they were married for at least 10 years. A current spouse has no time limiit. Generally, the folks at Social Security will work through that with them to find out which method gets them the highest monthly check. That sounds like exactly what wife #1 did and wife #2 is now in the process of doing.

Death benefits are paid to the next of kin. In the U.S., a current spouse is the default next of kin so wife #2 would usually be the person who gets the death benefit.

There is nothing illegal or inappropriate about any of what you've listed. What is your concern?

fishin
Thanks you answered my question. I was wondering if they both could draw Social Security from my brother. His first wife did not work outside the home. I also think the wife he was married to when he passed away would get the death benefit .

Sure she would, but that is only about $250-. Let's say there is a man who dies in his eighties. Every ten years he has married another woman. So theoretically, if he first married when he was twenty, seven women, (six ex-wives and one widow) could be getting his social security!

phoneix

So each wife can draw from the Social Security. I was wondering how they would go about caculating how much each wife would get. Do you know if one wife draws does it interfer with how much the second wife would get? I think the wife that was married to him before he passed away would get the death benefit of $250.00

The amount each wife/ex-wife draws has nothing to do with how much any other person gets for their monthly check. If your brother's lifetime income created a benefit check of $1600/month then each would be entitled to a complete $1600/month. It wouldn't matter if there were 2 wives/ex-wives or 30. They'd each get a full benefit check.

The formula SS uses to figure out how much the full benefit amount is goes like this:

The calculation looks at your (or your spouse's) entire earnings history with inflation adjustments, chooses the 35 best years and finds your average indexed monthly earnings for those years. Then it applies a formula that typically comes to somewhere between 25% and 45% of this inflation-adjusted average.

Thanks phoneix and fishin. I really appreciate the information from both of you.