> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://millionaire-marketing.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Order in Which the Two Claims Are Filed - URL: https://millionaire-marketing.ghost.io/the-order-in-which-the-two-claims-are-filed/ - Published: 2026-10-12T12:13:22.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-12T12:13:22.000Z - Author: John Stone When one spouse in a two-earner household dies, Social Security does not add the two benefits together. The survivor keeps the larger check and the smaller one stops. For a couple that built its budget around both, the arithmetic is immediate and permanent: a stylized example published by a retirement research institute in January 2026 shows household Social Security income falling from 27,000 dollars a year to 18,000, with no change in rent, taxes or utilities. The poverty rate among widowed women 65 and older was 15.5 percent in 2021, against 10.3 percent for everyone that age. Less understood is that the survivor usually holds two separate claims, not one, and the order in which they are filed can be worth tens of thousands of dollars. Federal auditors have documented the cost of getting that order wrong three separate times, most recently in March of this year. --- ***Sponsored by*** ***Weiss*** [5 insiders. Same stock. Same day. 7,426% gain over the next four years.](https://click.milmkt.com/nroc/1E10131?ref=millionaire-marketing.ghost.io) Dear Reader, What I’m about to share is [**one of the most powerful signals in the stock market.**](https://click.milmkt.com/nroc/1E10131?ref=millionaire-marketing.ghost.io) In February 2018, a small medical device company was trading at bargain basement prices — around $2 a share. Then something unusual happened. **On the same day, the CEO and four directors stepped in and bought shares of their own company. Same price range.** **Nearly $4 million combined.** Five insiders. One signal. By December 2021, the stock had rocketed to $150 a share. **A gain of 7,426%.** [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5b/93/5b931ca3-34c1-4bd0-ba9d-9cc78907a475/content/images/2026/10/image-7.png)](https://click.milmkt.com/nroc/1E10131?ref=millionaire-marketing.ghost.io) That's not a typo. Researchers call this a **“**[**cluster buy**](https://click.milmkt.com/nroc/1E10131?ref=millionaire-marketing.ghost.io)**”** — multiple insiders loading up within days of each other. And studies show it's one of the strongest, clearest signals in stock market history. The problem? Spotting these clusters used to mean digging through hundreds of SEC filings a day, hoping to catch the pattern before the stock moved. [**Now there's a tool built to find them automatically.** ](https://click.milmkt.com/nroc/1E10131?ref=millionaire-marketing.ghost.io) We're opening full access to this special insider-tracking tool via Weiss Ratings PLUS. [**Click here to learn how to get access.**](https://click.milmkt.com/nroc/1E10131?ref=millionaire-marketing.ghost.io) Sincerely, Eliza Lasky Weiss Advocate **P.S.** Five insiders bought the same stock on the same day — and it delivered a 7,426% gain. But there are countless more examples to demonstrate how this signal plays out over and over again. [Click here for more information.](https://click.milmkt.com/nroc/1E10131?ref=millionaire-marketing.ghost.io) --- ### Who Qualifies and for How Much The rules are older than most of the people using them. A surviving spouse qualifies at 60, or at 50 with a disability, after a marriage of at least nine months, or at any age while caring for the deceased worker's child. A divorced spouse qualifies on a marriage that lasted ten years. Remarriage at or after 60 does not end the benefit, which surprises people who assume it does. The amount depends almost entirely on timing. A surviving spouse at full retirement age receives 100 percent of the worker's benefit. At 60 the figure is 71.5 percent, rising through the sixties, and the maximum reduction for claiming early is 28.5 percent whatever the full retirement age is. A surviving spouse caring for a child under 16 receives 75 percent, as does each surviving child. Total family benefits are capped between 150 and 180 percent of the worker's amount, though a divorced survivor does not count against that cap. A separate limit from 1972 caps the survivor benefit at the higher of what the deceased would have been receiving if alive or 82.5 percent of the worker's basic amount, which is why a worker's own decision to claim early follows the household for the rest of the survivor's life. In December 2020, 22.4 percent of nondisabled widow beneficiaries over 65 had benefits reduced by that decision. ### The Mechanics of Two Benefits That Need Not Be Claimed Together Here is the structural fact. A widow or widower who worked has a survivor benefit and a retirement benefit of their own, and these are not merged. The agency's own guidance says plainly that a person entitled to both chooses which to take, the payments are not added together, and the choice can be changed later. That creates a sequence. A survivor benefit is capped at 100 percent at full retirement age and grows no further. A retirement benefit keeps growing with delayed credits until 70\. For a widow whose own earnings record is the stronger of the two, the arrangement that pays most over a lifetime is often to claim the survivor benefit first and switch at 70\. For a widow whose record is weaker, the reverse. Nothing in the application tells you which case you are in. ### What the Auditors Found In February 2018 the Inspector General examined 13,564 people entitled to both benefits before age 70 and estimated that roughly 11,123 would have received more by delaying the retirement claim. The agency had underpaid about 131.8 million dollars to an estimated 9,224 beneficiaries already past 70, and auditors found no evidence it had informed claimants of the option to delay, as it was required to do. The report published this past March says the problem persists. Of 120 sampled cases, 49 were paid incorrectly or had no documentation that options were discussed. Auditors estimated 8,618 widows and widowers were underpaid about 50.4 million dollars through one calculation error, and that another 5,367 could have received roughly 113.8 million dollars more by delaying to 70. ### The Part That Still Runs on Paper One more friction applies before any of this does. The survivor application cannot be filed online. It is completed by telephone or in a field office, with a death certificate, a marriage certificate where relevant, the deceased worker's Social Security number and tax records. The one-time death payment is 255 dollars and must be claimed within two years. *Every one of these mistakes is made in a single conversation, days after a death, by someone who has never been told that two separate claims exist.* Three things are worth settling before that call. Whether your own retirement benefit at 70 would exceed the survivor benefit at full retirement age, because that answer decides the order. Whether you are still working, since the 2026 earnings test withholds one dollar for every two above 24,480 dollars before full retirement age. And that the conversation about delaying is one the agency is supposed to have with you, which makes it reasonable to ask for it. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5b/93/5b931ca3-34c1-4bd0-ba9d-9cc78907a475/content/images/2026/10/older-woman-alone-at-a-table-set-for-two.jpg) --- more interesting content [The question that separates the rich from the broke](https://click.milmkt.com/oxuc/1GE7132?ref=millionaire-marketing.ghost.io) (Sponsored by Freedom Financial Research) [Elon says "don't save money." 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It's the clearest setup I've seen in a long time…”](https://click.milmkt.com/cxdl/1B131313?ref=millionaire-marketing.ghost.io) (Sponsored by Omnia Research) [E.O. 14330 just triggered a trillion-dollar transfer](https://click.milmkt.com/vrcz/1GE111314?ref=millionaire-marketing.ghost.io) (Sponsored by Omnia Research) --- *DISCLAIMER* *The content in this email does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any financial instrument. All commentary is general in nature and is not directed at any individual investor.* --- *— John Stone*