Loans from plans subject to QJSA require spousal consent. Spousal consent is not required if the $5,000 cash out applies. When applying that exception, do you use the total account balance or just the portion of the account used to secure the loan? For example, assume a participant has a $10,000 account balance (fully vested) and applies for a $3,000 loan. Is spousal consent needed?

Yes. The same rules apply as if the participant were taking a distribution from the plan.

So you use the entire account balance ($10,000 in my example).