On Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:13:15 -0700, "Dimitri" >
wrote:

>>>
>>>In the interim a spouse trying to LIVE on 1/2 her deceased husbands SS
>>>is
>>>up the creek and there are no more paddles he/she can access.
>>
>>
>> The full value of a vested pension is paid to a spouse...
>
>No it's not . At the time of claiming then pension the recipient and their
>spouse (because of community property laws) must determine a "split" of the
>pension i.e. 50-50. or 75-25 etc. When the one of the partners dies the
>survivor is left with the agreed upon remaining percentage. This is the way
>the pension funds decrease their future liability and expand the funds upon
>the backs of the survivors.
>
>Lets take an example Mr. X gets a pension of 1,000.00 per month.
>He and Mrs. X decide to split 50 -50.
>
>When one of the 2 dies the survivor is left with 500.00 per month.
>
>If you add SSI to the mix at the death of one of the partners the potential
>is for the household to lose half of their income.
>
>There are strategies to overcome this deficiency.

Well of course, don't set up a split... leaving half to a spouse (the
law says so) and half to say a child is a choice. The point still
remains that anyone can purchase their own pension by systematic
investment... both spouses each need to buy their own pension. But
few have the foresight and sense of responsibility to do so... and
thinking about it for 30 years but doing nothing until like a year
before retirement is way too late. And there are many vehicles one
can invest in, if one is not comfortable with mutual funds they can
always buy gold, some purchase real property and then collect rent for
retirement income, lots of folks do exactly that. If one is going to
rely on some entity taking care of them as though they're an infant
then they will very likely be sorely disappointed. No matter what
income level one can always make a systematic investment... even if
all one can contribute is $1/day, if one starts at age 18 they will be
in good economic stead come retirement age. Nowadays hardly anyone
has a savings plan of their own.. all most folks have of their own is
debt. There is really no point going to a job every day if all one
does every day is go deeper and deeper into debt... a debter is a
whole lot worse kind of bum than a skidrow wino. Anyone who owes so
much as a penny is a debter, a bum.