3 Questions to Ask Before Doing a Roth Conversion

If you like the idea of tax-free retirement income and don't want to deal with the hassle of required minimum distributions (RMDs), a Roth conversion may be worth pursuing. With a Roth conversion, you convert a traditional retirement account balance to a Roth IRA. It's a strategy that works well for many retirees, but it's important to go about Roth conversions carefully -- and make sure they're right for you.

With that in mind, here are three questions to ask yourself before doing a Roth conversion.

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1. How much time do I have before RMDs start?

If you were born in 1960 or later, RMDs begin at age 75. Otherwise, you have to start RMDs at 73. If you know you're interested in a Roth conversion, make sure to figure out how many years you have until RMDs begin.

See, one thing to know about Roth conversions is that they're a taxable event. The amount you move into a Roth IRA will be taxed in the year you make the conversion. So it's often advantageous to spread Roth conversions out across as many years as possible.

Let's say you're about to retire at 67. If you were born in 1959, RMDs start at 73. That gives you a six-year window to spread out a conversion to minimize the annual tax hit.

2. What tax rate am I willing to convert at?

Your goal in making a Roth conversion should be to pay as little tax as possible on your retirement plan withdrawals. To that end, it's important to determine which tax rate makes sense to convert at.

Let's say you're single and expect an annual retirement income of $100,000 after accounting for RMDs. Based on today's rates, you fall into the 22% bracket. What that also means is that it probably doesn't make sense to convert at a higher rate than 22%.

Now, let's say you're 62 and are still working with a $100,000 salary. That almost fills up the 22% bracket.

If you convert another $50,000 to a Roth IRA while earning that salary, you'll push yourself into the 24% bracket. And if you're looking to convert $200,000 a year on top of your $100,000 salary, a lot of that conversion will be happening at a 32% tax rate.

To put all this another way, if you can't convert at a lower rate than what you'd potentially be looking at on RMDs, a Roth conversion may not pay unless you have strong legacy goals. That's because there can be significant benefits to leaving a Roth IRA to heirs rather than a traditional retirement account balance.

3. How charitable do I plan to be in retirement?

If charitable giving is a big part of your retirement plans, you may not want to convert too much of your savings to a Roth IRA. That's because traditional IRAs let you do qualified charitable distributions (QCDs), which allow you to satisfy RMDs without increasing your taxes.

With QCDs, you send money from your IRA to a charitable organization. There's no sense in converting funds you're looking to donate, since you'll simply incur an extra tax bill for no good reason.

While Roth conversions can be a great source of savings and flexibility, it's important to do them carefully. Run through these questions first so you can move forward with more confidence.

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