When Congress changed Social Security spousal benefit provisions in November 2015, it grandfathered anyone 62 or over 62 as of January 1, 2016. In this case their spousal or divorced spousal benefit will become an excess spousal or an excess divorced spousal benefit. Now to be fair to Social Security, there is another screen referenced by "deemed filing" with FAQs that correctly clarify the grandfathering and reference January 1, 2016. Yesterday he called Social Security and was told he can't file just for a spousal benefit. Instead, figure out from my or some other reliable company's software precisely what to tell Social Security to do.

Source: Forbes February 07, 2017 18:09 UTC