This is actually a pretty obscure change. The only people doing it are the ones with the financial savvy, or advisors that understand all the alternatives.
They don't describe all of these changes, but I can summarize the one that is in the article:
- Both spouses have enough "quarters of coverage" to collect Social Security.
- One spouse files for benefits and starts.
- The second spouse files for benefits, and then suspends their benefit.
- Second spouse then files for "spousal" benefits (50% of the first spouse's benefit)
- Second spouse waits until later to file for their own benefit -- which gets 8% larger every year until age 70.
There are a lot of variables: the age of each spouse, the size of their benefit, etc. You can't really figure it out without a computer program that evaluates all the alternatives and finds the solution that yields the largest cumulative benefit over your expected lifetime(s).
There are websites that will do this for you, for a nominal fee (like $40 for a 1-year subscription, and you can use it as often as you want to evaluate any changes). Drop me a line via FreepMail if you want a link -- I'm not going to advertise for them.
"The only people doing it are the ones with the financial savvy, or advisors that understand all the alternatives."Yes, and these strategies are getting more airtime and more people are now aware of them. A subset shingle for CPA's to add to their current one is based upon helping choose these strategies, that might nix that subset business for them.