Divorce and Social Security
In negotiating your divorce settlement, whether in divorce mediation, collaborative divorce, or otherwise, you will need to determine what your financial life will look like after divorce. In addition to dividing your assets and debts, you will look at your income sources and anticipated expenses to determine your monthly cash flow.
One income source people sometimes do not consider is social security. Even if you have not worked and earned your own social security benefits, you may be entitled to receive social security benefits based upon the benefits earned by your ex-spouse.
If you are divorced, you can receive benefits based on your ex-spouse’s record if:
- Your marriage lasted 10 years or longer.
- You have not re-married.
- You are age 62 or older.
- The benefit that you are entitled to receive based on your own work is less than the benefit you would receive on your ex-spouse’s benefits (generally 50% of your ex-spouse’s benefits).
Note that if you are qualified for social security based on your earning history, and you also qualify for a portion of your former spouses’ benefit, you will only receive one benefit – the greater of the two. If you remarry, you will no longer qualify for your former spouse’s benefit unless your subsequent marriage ends. It is also important to note that your receipt of a portion of your former spouse’s social security benefit does not reduce the benefit your former spouse will receive.
When negotiating your divorce settlement, you will assign a value to most of your assets, including pensions and other forms of deferred compensation. A person’s right to receive social security, while potentially very valuable, is an interest that cannot be divided by a court and is not typically valued. In either divorce mediation or collaborative divorce, you may choose to take future social security benefits into account.
