Social Security Full Retirement Age (FRA)

Full Retirement Age is the reference point around which the entire Social Security claiming decision revolves. Your Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) — the benefit you earned based on your highest 35 years of indexed earnings — is payable at 100% starting at your FRA. Filing earlier reduces the benefit permanently. Filing later increases it permanently.

For anyone born in 1960 or later, FRA is 67. For those born 1955–1959, FRA phases in between 66 and 2 months and 66 and 10 months. For those born 1954 or earlier, FRA is 66.

Filing at the earliest age (62) permanently reduces the benefit by approximately 30%, relative to the FRA benefit. Filing at 70 increases the benefit by roughly 24% above FRA (specifically: 8% per year of delayed-retirement credits between FRA and 70). Delayed credits stop accruing at age 70 — there is no benefit to filing later than that.

The 'right' filing age depends on life expectancy, marital status, spousal benefit coordination, outside income, tax situation, and personal circumstances. For married couples, coordinating both spouses' filings — especially planning around survivor benefits — is often worth six figures over a joint lifetime compared to filing independently.

Filing at 62 is statistically correct in only a minority of situations. The most common optimal strategy for a married couple is for the higher-earning spouse to delay to 70 (locking in the largest eventual survivor benefit) while the lower-earning spouse files closer to FRA. Individual circumstances vary — a personalized analysis is always worth running before filing.