When a spouse dies, the emotional shock often collides with an immediate financial question: what happens to the Social Security income that helped pay the bills. Survivor rules are technical, but ...

Many widows and widowers may miss important Social Security rules that impact their income. Discover key mistakes to avoid and ways to maximize survivor benefits.

A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate aims to increase Social Security benefits for widowed Americans as well as people who are divorced yet still entitled to benefits from their deceased ...

Over the past 17 years that I have been doing this column, I have written about 50 columns dealing with the Social Security offsets that impact some state and local government employees who work at ...

These options are open to you because something called the “deemed filing rule” doesn’t apply to widows. That rule generally says that when you file for one Social Security benefit, you are “deemed” ...

For married couples with unequal historical earnings, it may make sense for the lower income spouse to file for Social Security benefits early or before the higher earner. Ultimately, deciding when to ...

The average monthly Social Security retirement benefit for 65-year-olds was recently $1,611, or only around $19,000 for the year. There are ways to beef up your benefits before you retire. One ...