Nonspouse Beneficiary of Retirement Account

Was contacted yesterday from someone who wanted to know if their spouse would be required to sign a Consent if my friend wanted to know someone other than her husband as the beneficiary of her IRA.

401(k) rules and IRA rules are different. Last time I checked, this was the deal:

• If you are a participant in a 401(k) plan, and you want to name someone other than your spouse as beneficiary, then you must get your spouse to sign a Consent form. The rationale is that the spouse is giving up an ownership interest in your 401(k) plan.
• Louisiana law provides that an IRA owner can be permitted to name a non-spouse beneficiary, and the spouse's consent is not required.
• Some financial institutions, though, still require their IRA owners to obtain consent from the spouse when the IRA owner names a non-spouse beneficiary.

If you own an IRA and want to name someone other than your spouse as the beneficiary, and either your spouse won't consent, or you don't want your spouse to know about it, then you may need to look around to find an IRA owner that will permit you to do this.

I asked a friend of mine, Marcel Dupre, who owns WealthPlanners. He said his company permits IRA owners to name a nonspouse beneficiary without requiring the consent of the spouse.

Anybody else out there have any comments on this issue??