Can I keep deceased wife's Social Security survivor benefits if I remarry?

Unfortunately, yes. If you remarry before age 60, you generally can't collect survivor benefits from your deceased spouse. The SSA considers remarriage before 60 as ending eligibility for survivor benefits. If you wait until after you turn 60 to remarry, then you can continue receiving the survivor benefits.

Same thing happened to my sister! She lost her benefits when she remarried at 57, and was SHOCKED. Nobody told her until after the wedding!!

I'd definitely confirm this with SSA directly. The rules about remarriage and survivor benefits have some exceptions and special cases. For example, if your new marriage ends (divorce or death), you might be able to get the survivor benefits back. Also worth noting - if you're disabled, different rules might apply. And if you're caring for a child who gets benefits from your deceased wife, that might have different rules too. But yes, generally speaking, remarriage before 60 = lose survivor benefits.

This is one of those weird Social Security rules that forces people to make tough personal choices. The exact rule is if you remarry before age 60, you cannot receive benefits as a surviving spouse while you are married. But as someone mentioned, if that marriage ends, you can requalify. Also important: if you're receiving survivor benefits and are approaching your own FRA (Full Retirement Age), you should look into whether your own retirement benefit might be higher. Sometimes people focus so much on the survivor benefit they forget to check if their own retirement benefit would actually pay more when they reach 70.

i waited til i was 60 to remarry for exactly this reason. girlfriend wasnt happy about it but the $1800/month from my late husband's SS was too much to give up. we calculated it would cost us over $40k to marry early. sometimes you gotta make practical choices.

I've been trying to call Social Security for THREE DAYS to ask something similar!! The wait times are RIDICULOUS and I keep getting disconnected. How is anyone supposed to get help with these complicated rules??!!

One last thing that might be relevant to your situation: If you are caring for a child of the deceased worker who is under 16 or disabled, the remarriage rule works differently. In that case, you can remarry at any age and still receive benefits. But since you didn't mention any children, I'm guessing this exception doesn't apply to you. Whatever you decide, make sure to report any marriage to SSA immediately to avoid potential overpayments that you'd have to pay back later.

Have you run the numbers on what the financial difference would be? Sometimes it helps to see it on paper. If your survivor benefit is $2000/month and you'd lose it by marrying 2 years early, that's potentially $48,000 you'd be giving up. Everyone has to make their own choice about whether that's worth it, but having the actual figure helps with the decision.

My neighbor said you can just not tell Social Security you got married and keep collecting! But that sounds like fraud to me??