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

Social Security spousal benefits present an important source of income for many of your clients. But there are several important and unique Social Security issues that must be addressed for any client that has recently lost their spouse.

To help make it easier, we have created the “Am I Eligible for Social Security Benefits as a Surviving Spouse?” flowchart. It addresses many common Social Security issues that arise for clients who have recently lost their spouse:

• Eligibility considerations
• Length of marriage rules
• Age that benefits can be collected by the surviving spouse
• Married vs divorced vs surviving spouse implications
• Impact of a remarriage
• Impact of having children
• Impact of a disability

Updated for 2019