Suze Orman Warns the Highest Pension Payout Can Leave Your Spouse With Nothing
The pension option that pays married retirees the biggest monthly check comes with a hidden cost that most couples discover too late. Suze Orman walked through the exact numbers to show what a surviving spouse could actually be left with.
Suze Orman is warning married retirees that the pension option with the biggest monthly check can leave a surviving spouse with nothing at all. In “Classic Suze School: The Right Pension Option,” released September 17, 2026 on her Women & Money podcast, she laid out the choice every pension recipient faces at retirement: “Do you want to get your full pension amount, which means you will get X per month, but if you die, it’s called a life only. If you die, your spouse will get absolutely nothing.”
If you’ll be filling out retirement paperwork soon, this one form decides how much income your spouse could be living on for decades.
How Each Pension Option Splits the Check
The alternative to life only is a joint and survivor option. Orman listed the levels: “100% joint and survivor benefit, which again is where your spouse gets 100% of what you’re getting. 75% joint and survivor benefit, which means your spouse would get only 75% of what you were getting, 50% joint and survivor benefit, which means your spouse would get only 50% of what you were getting, and 25%, which means your spouse would only get 25% of what you were getting.” She compared protecting a spouse this way to buying coverage: “That’s like an insurance policy.”
She showed how it works using an email from a listener named Steven, a teacher. His wife “does not have a pension, only Social Security.” These were his monthly choices:
| Option | Steven’s Monthly Check | Spouse’s Share After His Death |
|---|---|---|
| Life only | $2,595 | Nothing |
| 25% joint and survivor | $2,481 | 25% |
| 50% joint and survivor | $2,361 | 50% |
| 75% joint and survivor | $2,245 | 75% |
| 100% joint and survivor | $2,141 | 100% |
“Do you see how it’s going up?” Orman asked as the survivor share fell. Each step down raises the retiree’s check “because you’re leaving less to your spouse upon your death.” Taking the full survivor benefit costs Steven $454 per month.
Single Retirees Are the Only Ones Life Only Fits
Orman’s rule for the life only option is short: “Now obviously if you are not married, you want to take the life only option because remember, joint and survivor benefits are only for those who are married.”
For Steven, her advice was to “without a shadow of a doubt choose the 100% joint and survivor option.” She also pointed to a middle path some plans offer, called a pop-up option: “It is where you take the 100% joint and survivor option and if your spouse dies before you, you get to pop up to the full amount.” She said it “will cost you a little bit, but not as much as a plain 100% joint and survivor benefit.”
Survivors Often Need More Money Than Couples Expect
Couples who take a smaller survivor benefit usually assume the widow or widower will need less money. Orman pushed back on that in “Classic Suze School: It’s Never Too Late To Fix a Mistake,” using a husband named Ed: “As you get older, you tend to need more money. You tend to spend more money on prescriptions. You might need help.”
Social Security adds to the pressure. “Upon death, one of those Social Security checks goes away and the surviving spouse will take over the higher of the two,” she explained. With a 50% option, Ed would collect $14,532 a year, but his wife would get only $7,266, reducing her from about $1,211 a month down to $605 a month.
The latest federal numbers show the same gap. After the 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment for 2027, the Social Security Administration estimates that an aged couple where both spouses collect benefits gets an average of $3,355 a month. An aged widow or widower living alone averages $2,005. Rent, property taxes, and insurance premiums don’t fell by the same amount (we explained the survivor benefit math couples get wrong most often in a free guide here).
What to Check Before You Sign Your Pension Election
- Get the dollar figure for every option in writing, including life only and each survivor levels.
- Ask whether your plan offers a pop-up option and what it costs.
- Estimate your spouse’s income after your death: the higher of your two Social Security checks plus the survivor share of the pension.
- Include going up medical and care costs in that estimate, as Orman recommends.
Orman’s bottom line for married couples: “Things can happen and every single penny matters.” Before you sign, do the math on what your spouse would live on without you.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Chris Lange is a financial and geopolitical writer with more than a decade of experience covering a myriad of topics. He has published thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St., with past coverage focused heavily on stocks, IPOs, healthcare, defense, global affairs, and technology.
His work has been quoted, or referenced by a number of outlets including Business Insider, USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, The Motley Fool, and many other publications. A graduate of Southwestern University, he studied business with a focus on investments and has previous experience in banking and startups.
When not reading or writing the news, he is following his passion for Lacrosse, playing chess, or building solar projects with his dad.
