Prayers for all involved here. Sorry that your family is dealing with this problem and sorry for your loss.

JSKolache said:

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aggiez03 said:

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Stive said:

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Those links only apply if both people are in the SS system. You need to look at permabull's post above. People that are on TRS fall into a different category and she likely won't get anything.

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I guess I missed that post, that is nuts.

Pay into it all those years and die at 70 and your teacher wife gets nothing for all the years paid into it?

That seems almost criminal.

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Same deal as teachers with many police and firefighters in TX and a handful of other states. When hired they they opt out of SS and into the public pension plan. My moms TRS is better payout than dads SS is.

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The issue is most teachers go in thinking their TRS is all they need for retirement. Most, well maybe not most with how dumb people are, but everyone I know in the corporate world knows SS isn't enough so also has a 401K.

We (my family) experienced this when my dad passed at the age of 61. Mom was an admin assistant in a couple of rural districts through her career. Initially we were told she wouldn't be eligible to receive any of dad's SS. Ended up getting a portion via the method dirkjones outlined above.

Thankfully my sister ran point on getting it all sorted out. I'm sure I would not have taken as calm of an approach as she did. I was irate when we were initially told mom would get nothing.