What happens after the first death

Why this matters

For a couple, the plan doesn't end when the first spouse dies — but a lot changes in that moment, and most of it works against the survivor. One Social Security check stops. A pension may shrink or stop entirely. The tax brackets get tighter, because the survivor now files as single. Meanwhile the household's bills fall only somewhat — one person still needs the house, the insurance, the car.

By default the forecast ignores all of this and treats both of you as alive to the end of the plan, which quietly flatters the numbers. Turning on survivor modeling shows the honest version.

How to turn it on

Go to My Plan → Profile & assumptions in the app and tick Model what happens after the first death. It only appears when your plan has a spouse.

Each person's death is set by their life expectancy on the same panel. When the first death arrives:

• Income tied to that person stops. Under My Plan → Income, use Whose income to say who each stream belongs to. Income left as Household keeps going (rent from a property, for example).
• A pension can partly continue. If a pension has a survivor option — many pay 50% or 75% to a surviving spouse — set Continues to survivor on that income stream.
• Social Security follows its own rule. A survivor keeps the larger of the two benefits, never both. The app applies this automatically — you don't need to configure it. If the survivor hadn't claimed yet, they receive the deceased spouse's full benefit.
• Spending shrinks, but not by half. The survivor's expenses default to 75% of the household's — the usual planning rule of thumb. You can change this with the Survivor's expenses field.
• Taxes go up. From the year after the death, the survivor files as single — smaller standard deduction, tighter brackets. The year of the death itself is still filed jointly, as in real life. (This needs tax modeling turned on.)

What to look for

Open the projection and step through the months around the first death. Income drops, expenses drop less, and the monthly gap often widens — that's the survivor squeeze, and it's the reason a plan that looks comfortable for a couple can be tight for whoever remains.

If the squeeze looks bad, the levers that help most are the pension's survivor percentage (a decision often made at retirement and irreversible), and delaying the higher earner's Social Security — a bigger check that later becomes the survivor's check for life. See Social Security timing.

As with everything here: an educational estimate, not financial advice.