There isn’t any. Although spouses have protection when assets are held in qualified retirement plans, so that the plan participant can’t name a beneficiary other than the spouse to receive death benefits without the spouse’s approval, no such protection applies to assets held in individual retirement accounts. So a participant in a qualified retirement plan can retire, roll over his or her benefit balance to an IRA, and then name anyone he or she wishes as the beneficiary of death benefits. This loophole in the law has been known for many years, but no steps have been taken to correct it. With more than $4B now held in IRAs, this is a substantial issue in the protection of spouses’ financial well-being.