Typically a person receives a retirement benefit or a spousal/widower benefit. But sometimes a person will receive an annual Social Security benefit reported in two parts in MaxiFi's Social Security report. The benefit amount may be shown as being composed of two parts in order to provide some transparency into the sources of the total annual benefit.
The first part is based on the recipient's own work record and is listed in the retirement benefit column while the second part, the excess spousal benefit or excess widow(er)'s benefit, is based on the recipient's spouse's record and is listed either in the spousal or survivor benefit column. This reflects the way Social Security accounts for the total spousal or total widow(er)'s benefits but more importantly we do this:
- so we can show separate reductions for both the retirement benefit and spousal or widow(er)'s benefit due to taking one or both before FRA; and
- to show separate earnings deductions due to either or both of the record holder's and the beneficiary’s earnings before their full retirement age.