My advice is always be proactive and contact Social Security as soon as possible after your spouse passes away as benefits will only start once you apply. Survivor benefits are considered separate from your own retirement benefit, are flexible and paid for the rest of your life. Assuming you are eligible, you should always consider taking either your own worker benefit or the survivor benefit as soon as possible. One absolute regarding survivor benefits is there is NO advantage to wait to start collecting survivor benefits after you reach your full retirement age. So, if your own worker benefit exceeds the survivor benefit, you will not receive a survivor benefit as Social Security will pay the higher of the two benefits.

Source: Forbes May 03, 2019 19:07 UTC