Dear Penny: I’m Collecting Money From My Late Husband’s Pension. Can I Still Do That if I Remarry?
I’ve been collecting survivor benefits from my late husband’s pension for 14 years. I am 81 years old. If I remarry, can I still collect his pension? I do get Social Security, my retirement benefits and survivor benefits from his account combined. Just wondering about his pension. Thank you!
— Lady in Waiting
Dear Lady,
Whether you can continue to collect survivor benefits from a pension depends on the terms of the pension. Terms vary from plan to plan, but some characteristics are typical for private versus public plans.
If it’s a private pension, chances are good that your benefits will be unchanged if you remarry, especially if the contributions came primarily from your late husband rather than his employer. Many public pensions stipulate that survivor benefits stop if the surviving spouse remarries, but your age might make a difference.
The U.S. military’s Survivor Benefit Program (SBP) lets a surviving spouse continue to receive benefits if you remarry, as long as the remarriage is after age 55. (If a survivor were to remarry younger, benefits would stop, but they’d start again if the marriage were to end.)
Regardless of these norms, though, check with your pension plan administrator to learn the details of your specific plan.
As long as you remarry after age 60, you can keep collecting Social Security survivor benefits from your late husband.
Dana Miranda is a Certified Educator in Personal Finance® and author of YOU DON’T NEED A BUDGET. She writes Healthy Rich, a newsletter about how capitalism impacts the ways we think, teach and talk about money.
