Q: When a spouse passes away, doesn't the survivor continue on with the higher of the two benefit checks from Social Security?
A; When a spouse passes away the survivor will receive the higher of two Social Security benefit offerings. The software models this survivorship rule.
However, what some may find confusing is the way we display this in the software. AdviserGo will continue to show the survivor's original Social Security payments as a separate line item and in addition to these, we show an adjustment to account for the difference between the deceased spouse's benefits (if these were the higher of the two) and the survivor's original benefits. The two when added together should equal the deceased spouse's original benefits.
The following screenshots provide an example of how we show this.
Base Plan:
Plan with Early Mortality: Note Forest's original benefit, the first listed, is the adjusted amount with the total equaling what would have been the higher of the two Social Security benefits.