If you were born before January 3, 1954 there is a strategy called “restricting an application for spousal benefits.” With this trick, the second spouse delays collecting until age 70, but for the intervening years collects 50% of the spouse’s benefit “for free.”

This trick was eliminated for those born after January 2, 1954.

To apply, you must have reached your full retirement age and your spouse must have already started collecting benefits, which means he or she must be at least 62 years old.

This can sometimes be beneficial for those expecting to live beyond age 78.  You delay filing when you reach full retirement age (when you’re eligible for 100% of the benefits you’ve earned), and as a result your future benefits will grow 8% every year until you reach age 70 (after that, there’s likely no further advantage to delaying).

Example:  you now qualify for a $2,800 full-retirement monthly benefit, and your spouse is currently already collecting a $2,000 benefit. You file a restricted application to claim spousal benefits, which are equal to 50% of your spouse’s current monthly benefit – in this case, that would be $1,000 per month. Your combined benefits will now be $3,000 a month until you reach age 70. At that time, you can switch (you obviously would switch) to a your own benefit worth approximately $3,800 (after growing 8% per year). You and your spouse will then have a total of more than $5,800 per month, plus additional annual cost-of-living adjustments.  And that new higher benefit of $3,800 (plus all of those additional annual cost-of-living adjustments) is the one that the surviving spouse will elect to keep after the first spouse dies.

Many folks at Social Security have no clue of this strategy.  So if you want to file a restricted application for spousal benefits only, you may need to speak to a manager at the local Social Security office.