This sounds straight-forward and pretty much is but I had a couple of questions:

Q1)what if you didn't want to name your spouse as the sole beneficiary. Isn't there something where you ha e to get spousal consent to name anyone else. Might vary state to state. I reside in Texas.

Q2) is there a way to name my kids (minors) as beneficiaries once they become 18? Also, is these any way to stipulate how the proceeds are to be used from a death benefit?

For Q2, I had to do a will and a trust. All of my accounts and my life insurance policies have the trust as the beneficiary. I'm a single mom, so there really was no other option. An immediate family member is the trustee, and there are instructions in the trust that give complete control of the assets to my kiddo once he hits a certain age (it's not 18, but it could have been). The trust also includes specific instructions about how to disperse the cash assets to my son (paying for school, a car, etc.) as well as the non-liquid assets, like my house (sell the house and the proceeds go into the trust).

1) will need wife to sign if she isn't at least 50% primary - some companies will require sig if she isn't 100% to protect themselves

1) Will vary company to company. Some will allow you to not have the spouse but might require a written explanation. If you want the primary beneficiary tricked up in some way, the easiest thing to do is have a trust drawn up, name the trust as the beneficiary, then leave instructions for the trustee. You can also leave it to your estate but that can create other potential problems.

2) What the earlier poster said. The instructions need to be left in legal documents (trust, will, etc) on how it should be handled for their future ages/situations.

Yea, trust is the route for #2. We have a family trust that is partially funded by insurance and then some other assets. The trust assets don't release to individual children until the youngest is 25. Therefore, it is setup to care for all of my children as the trustee sees fit, once the youngest hits 25 the balance at that time is to be split equally.