We are not aware of any Illinois laws that would require spousal consent for designating an IRA beneficiary that is not the owner’s spouse or for IRA withdrawals. Spousal consent for an IRA is often required in community property states. Because those states automatically grant a property interest in the IRA to the owner’s spouse, the spouse must sign off on the designation of a third party as the beneficiary of the IRA. (IRS Publication 555 has more information about community property laws.) Illinois is not a community property state and therefore does not require a spouse to sign off on an IRA that names a third party (someone other than the spouse) as a beneficiary. Similarly, we also could not find any Illinois state law that would require you to obtain the spouse’s consent for withdrawals if the spouse is not named as the beneficiary.