Spouse Survivor Benefit Computation? about open-social-security

[MikePiper]

@davidabarrett unfortunately I cannot provide a reasonably concise answer to that question, as the specifics of the calculation can vary quite a bit from one set of circumstances to another. Do you have a particular set of inputs for which you think the application is providing an incorrect calculation?

As far as literature, the app is written based on the rules as described in the CFR and POMS:
https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/cfr20/404/404-0000.htm
https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/partlist

On the (uncommon) occasion on which those two sources offer contradictory guidance, I turned to the Social Security Act itself:
https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title02/0200.htm

[brian-courts]

@MikePiper Mr. Barrett (and other interested parties) may not be concerned about the details of how the survivor benefit is calculated. They may want to understand the conditions under which the numbers provided are accurate. For example (and I'm guessing a little here about the conditions):

The benefits in the "If your spouse outlives you" line under either the "Recommended Strategy" or "Alternative Claiming Strategy" are those which your spouse would receive if:
a) Your spouse survives you after the last claim specified in the relevant strategy.
b) You claimed your benefit(s) and your spouse claimed his/her benefit(s) on the date(s) specified.
c) Your spouse has reached his/her Full Retirement Age.
... and any other conditions which apply to the calculation.

The benefits in the "If you outlive your spouse" line under either the "Recommended Strategy" or "Alternative Claiming Strategy" are those which you would receive if:
a) You survive your spouse after the last claim specified in the relevant strategy.
b) You claimed your benefit(s) and your spouse claimed his/her benefit(s) on the date(s) specified.
c) You have reached your Full Retirement Age.
... and any other conditions which apply.

The benefits shown might apply even if some of the above condition's are not met, but not always. I've seen in my case that my wife would receive more if she claimed survivor benefits before her specified claiming date (at age 70) if I should die before then, but that option is not shown in the output.

I understand that it is impractical to include every possible circumstance in a simple, readable output table like the one you provide. Some explanation of the assumptions might be included in the "About" page for the detail-oriented users.

[MikePiper]

@brian-courts
The primary assumptions used for the survivor-related rows in the table are:

1. Each person lives to their intended filing age, and
2. Survivor benefits are claimed after survivor FRA.

That's it as far as broadly applicable assumptions.

Further assumptions can apply based on circumstances. Essentially, all three of the final rows (i.e., any row that isn't year-by-year) wait until any date-specific circumstance changes have occurred. For example, if a user selects the assumption for a benefit cut at a given year in the future, the table will include year-by-year rows until that year. The final three rows are all indicating what the benefit(s) would be in following years.

Ditto for children reaching age 18 and non-covered pensions kicking in (i.e., the table will have year-by-year rows until those events occur, and the final three rows are indicating what benefits would be after such events occur).

I do plan to add a fair bit of explanatory material to the site over time, once pure functionality has been completed.

Also, as you suggested via email, I added a note here on GitHub (on the "wiki" page, as that's the only place I could find to add it) about the Bogleheads discussion thread.

(I'm going to leave this issue "open" at least for a while, in case @davidabarrett has other concerns here.)

[brian-courts]

@MikePiper
Thanks for your quick response.

Your statement of the assumptions is clear and concise. Those qualities are probably some of the reasons people buy your books..