Spousal Consent

• In many states, community property laws exist that result in your spouse automatically gaining control of your IRA upon your death unless your spouse signed a spousal consent form prior to your death that enabled you to name someone else as your IRA beneficiary. However, some states, including Illinois, do not have community property rights that entitle your spouse to your IRA. Therefore, you can name someone other than your spouse as your IRA beneficiary in Illinois without having to obtain your spouse's consent.
  
  

Changes

• If you named your spouse as your IRA beneficiary at the time that you established your IRA, you can remove your spouse's name from the account simply by completing a change of beneficiary form. You can obtain this form from your IRA custodian. You do not have to change your will when you change your IRA beneficiary because the funds in the IRA account pass to your named beneficiary without having to go through the probate process. You can change your IRA beneficiary as frequently as you like and you may even opt to split your account between several beneficiaries.
  
  

Spouse's Rights

• Although the state of Illinois has no community property rights that control the disbursement of your IRA, the state does protect your spouse's rights in the event that you die without having a will or designated beneficiary. In such a situation, your spouse assumes control of half of your estate, including any IRA accounts that you owned. If you are married but have no children, if you die without naming beneficiaries or creating a will, then your spouse assumes full control of your entire estate, including your IRA.
  
  

Considerations

• If you live in Illinois but have IRA accounts that you established in other states, then those accounts are subject to the laws of those states. Furthermore, community property laws vary from state to state so if you open accounts outside Illinois you should make sure that you familiarize yourself with the community property laws of every state in which you have an account. To avoid having multiple probate hearings in different states, you should consider closing IRAs that you established elsewhere and rolling funds in those accounts into new accounts that you establish in Illinois. Thereafter, you can name someone other than your spouse as your IRA beneficiary and simplify the process of settling your estate.