A client of ours was able to retire after a career in law enforcement in her mid-fifties.  She had taken the accelerated pension benefit, which provides a higher income stream from retirement until age 62 at which point the pension drops by the amount of the individual’s social security benefit. The plan for this client was to turn on her social security benefit at age 62.  However, while reviewing her situation with our planning experts, we noted that she was eligible for a survivor’s benefit from her deceased husband.  We then called the social security office during her review to get the benefit estimates for the survivor’s benefit and her own benefit.  One of the complexities of social security benefits is that widows or widowers are able to take their survivor benefit as early as age 60, while still allowing their own benefit to continue to grow until age 70.  After receiving the benefits estimates, we were then able to confirm this client should indeed take the survivor’s benefit at age 60, and then switch to her benefit at a later date.  This resulted in a substantial raise in income for two years which she had not planned on but will now be able to complete several projects much sooner than expected.