I'm hoping someone with some HOOPP experience can weigh in on this. I wrote a message to HOOPP asking about the cost of different survivor benefit scenarios (66.7%, 80%, 100%), and they advised me to use the online scenario estimates. Clicking on the left column shows a survivor benefits section which lays out different pension reductions depending on option chosen.
The issue I'm having is that I'm not sure how realistic they are. Even the most expensive reductions using 100% survivor benefit only show a pension reduction of 2.65%. That seems lower than I would've expected. At that price, it would be a no brainer for me to elect for 100% spousal coverage, but I don't want to include that in my projections (which are still 8+ years away) if it's unrealistic.
Anyone have real world examples that confirm/refute these numbers?