Barbara Janson asked whether she could keep her first husband's Social Security benefits when she remarried, and she received an answer that under a privatized system she could. That may be true, depending on what regulations a privatized system would put in place. Maybe a husband (not necessarily, your husband, Barbara!) would leave his privatized account to his mother or his children, or girlfriend, not his wife!
But under Social Security, if when you retire you are married, you are limited in choosing either your own benefit (the one you are entitled to based on your own work record) or the spousal benefit based on your current husband's earnings record. As you may know the spousal benefit is equal to 50% of the husband's benefit.
If you are not married when you retire, and have had several husbands (for at least 10 years each), you get to pick the highest benefits. If one of your former husbands (whether you were widowed or divorced) had a lot more earnings than the others, you could pick that spousal benefit. Unfortunately you can't have them all. And you would only pick a spousal benefit if it was greater than your own. Also when the former spouse dies, your spousal benefit goes up to 100% of his benefit.
If you are married to your second husband when you retire (and therefore get that spousal benefit), and then he dies, I think at that point you get to choose the benefit of the husband who earned the most (provided you were married at least 10 years to that one). So, depending on what happens in your future, it's quite possible you haven't lost all the benefits associated with your first husband's account.
It is an insurance system, and one of the risks it is insuring against is the risk of being in a traditional marriage, in which the husband typically earns more than the wife. From the husband's point of view, if he has 5 wives, each for 10 years, each is entitled to the full spousal benefit (not just a portion of it), that is, they would each get 50% of his earnings while he is still alive (equal to 250%) and when he dies, they each get 100% (or a total of 500%). So the guy with five wives who collect his benefit, is, you could say, getting a good return on his contributions!
In the case of multiple marriages, it does get complicated.
I also think that if you remarry after you retire, you don't necessarily have to give up your first husband's benefits if the new husband's benefits would be lower. But it sounds like you remarried before retirement.
I hope this information helps a little. And if I've given you given you any misinformation, I hope some of the other panelists will correct it!
