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Many women are losing out in retirement, thanks to decisions made by their spouses.

Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement

, said women often let their husbands handle issues of retirement "because they presume he knows more than they do." 

But due to poor planning or short-sighted financial choices, women are being left with fewer assets in their final years.

"When it comes to Social Security and a pension — if the couple is lucky enough to have one — how those benefits are taken can have huge ramifications for the survivor, which is most likely going to be the wife because women are living longer," said Sandra Block, a senior associate editor at 

It's a sensitive topic. When Block first wrote about it, she declared that "the best gift a man could give his wife would be to delay taking Social Security."

"I got some of the most abusive comments for anything I've ever written in my life," Block told MPR News host Kerri Miller.

Despite the controversy, it's an issue that needs addressing.

"The scary thing is, oftentimes the decisions are irrevocable. If you make the wrong decision, you can't turn around and change it," Block said. "This is why we see so many older women living their final years in poverty." 

Retirement decisions, Hounsell and Block said, need to be made with both parties in mind. 

"A lot of people just claim Social Security at age 62 because they can," Block said. "But that results in a permanent reduction in your benefits of up to 30 percent over your life."

With 6 million more women than men at age 65, Hounsell said, the situation becomes critical.

Women often have less Social Security in their own names, due to a combination of spending years out of the workforce or lower wages. That's why a couple's Social Security assets need to be viewed as joint rather than individual in the planning process.

"If he's the big breadwinner and he takes early Social Security, that's going to reduce the survivor benefits for his wife," Block said. "Even if you don't think you're going to live very long, you have think about how long 

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Many older women are spending their final years in poverty, thanks to decisions their spouses made about retirement savings.

Many older women are spending their final years in poverty, thanks to decisions their spouses made about retirement savings. Cindy Hounsell, president of the Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement, and Sandra Block, a senior associate editor at Kiplinger's Personal Finance, discuss the issue.

Why women are losing out in retirement

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