If you’re thinking hard about your Social Security claiming strategy, there may be one aspect you’ve overlooked. If you’re divorced, you may be able to receive Social Security benefits based on your ex-spouse’s work record.
While it may sound shady, this is a perfectly legal and ethical way to increase your Social Security checks. Here’s what you need to know.
[READ: How to Maximize Social Security With Spousal Benefits.]
How Receiving a Divorced Spouse’s Social Security Benefits Works
This claiming strategy is used after a divorce, and it’s a win-win for former partners, according to Tracy Coenen, a Chicago-based forensic accountant and fraud investigator who specializes in helping couples who are divorcing.
Your ex-spouse will still get their full benefit, Coenen says, adding: “You are claiming the benefit you are entitled to using a calculation based on your ex’s earnings record.”
This strategy is a lifeline for some spouses, according to Kathleen Owens, a financial advisor and fiduciary at Aurora Financial Planning & Investment Management.
“One spouse may have earned the bulk of income, while the other spouse was not earning as much due to staying home to raise children or had a lower-paying job,” Owens says.
Owens adds: “Some clients, when they learn of this, think they are getting revenge on their ex-spouse. But that’s not the case at all. The higher earner will not lose any of their monthly payment amount.”
Here’s how it works, according to Coenen: “You calculate your retirement benefit based on your own earnings record. You calculate your ex’s retirement benefit based on their earning record and multiply that by 50%. You get whichever of these amounts is greater, with no impact to what your ex gets.”
Unfortunately, you can’t get both amounts. “You can’t double-dip on Social Security benefits, meaning that you cannot collect divorced spouse benefits and your own retirement benefits simultaneously,” says Jill Fopiano, the president and CEO at O’Brien Wealth Partners in Waltham, Massachusetts.
“Instead, you receive the greater of benefits based on your own work record or 50% of your ex-spouse’s benefit. Regardless of your choice, the same discounting formula applies if you take your benefit before your full retirement age, so hold off filing if you can manage the cash flow,” she says.
[READ: What Is the Full Retirement Age for Social Security?]
Who Can Receive a Divorced Spouse’s Social Security Benefits?
Generally, there are three situations in which you can get access to more Social Security benefits from your divorced spouse. Those scenarios are:
— Your marriage lasted 10 years or more.
— You remarried but the second marriage ended in divorce, death or an annulment.
— You are 62 years of age or older.
Even if your spouse is married, you can still tap into your ex’s Social Security benefits — and it won’t take anything away from the ex’s married partner’s benefits. If your ex-spouse is deceased, you still may be able to tap into their benefits as well.
And if you remarried but the second marriage ended in divorce, death or an annulment, you may still be able to access your first spouse’s Social Security benefits, according to the Social Security Administration.
How Do You Receive a Divorced Spouse’s Social Security Benefits?
The very question may be off-putting, since these are your benefits too, provided you meet the eligibility criteria.
“You can apply for divorced spousal benefits online or over the phone, or in person at your local Social Security office,” Fopiano says.
“You will need to provide your spouse’s name and date of birth, as well as the date and location of your marriage and when and how it ended. Collecting benefits as an ex-spouse will not affect your ex-spouse’s benefits, nor do you need to tell your ex-spouse that you have applied for spousal Social Security benefits,” she says.
“If you gather your documents ahead of time, it will only take you 10 to 30 minutes to complete the process. The government verifies your information and then approves you for benefits,” Coenen says.
[READ: How Much You Will Get From Social Security.]
Other Considerations
Collecting Social Security benefits from a ex-spouse is a pretty straightforward process, but there are a few things you might want to consider if you’re divorced and thinking about your retirement.
— The 10-year timeline. Getting through a bad marriage and a divorce is tough, and if you’re in your 30s, 40s or 50s, you may not be thinking about collecting Social Security. Still, if your mind does go there, and you’re in year nine of a marriage heading toward divorce, Coenen says, “it might pay to wait to finalize the divorce until after you’ve passed the 10-year mark.”
— Any negatives of collecting your divorced spouse’s SS benefits. Fortunately, the cons of collecting are pretty obvious. “There’s really no downside to collecting divorced spousal Social Security benefits unless your own benefit is higher or you plan to remarry in the near future, which could reduce your benefit,” Owens says.
— You don’t need permission. Coenen says that there is a lot of general confusion about how collecting Social Security benefits from a divorced spouse works. “People usually think that one spouse ‘loses’ when this is done. For this reason, exes will sometimes try to talk the other out of doing this,” she says, adding, “You don’t need your ex’s permission. You don’t even need to communicate with them. Just go straight to SSA and apply. The worst that can happen is that you find out that your own Social Security benefit is worth more than half of your ex’s.”
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Can You Collect an Ex-Spouse’s Social Security Benefits? originally appeared on usnews.com
