You can claim survivor benefits separately from your own retirement benefits
If you’re a widow or widower, then you can receive survivor benefits based on your deceased spouse’s work history as early as age 60. What many people don’t know is that you don’t have to claim both your survivor benefits and any of your own retirement benefits at the same time.
That opens up a strategy whereby you can claim one benefit while delaying taking the other, letting it grow. The result can be a lot more in total benefits than you’d get if you simply claimed everything at once without thinking about it.
