Converting a traditional IRA to a Roth during your 60s eliminates RMDs at 73, letting you control withdrawals instead of the IRS. The 12% bracket tops at $100,800 for joint filers, giving retirees a low-cost annual window to convert before Social Security pushes income higher. Large conversions inflate MAGI and can trigger Medicare IRMAA surcharges up to $487 per month extra on Part B two years later.
Many financial professionals are salespeople paid on what they push, not whether you end up wealthier. A fiduciary is the opposite. The SEC legally requires them to put your interests first.
Advisor.com's free matching tool pairs you with vetted fiduciaries from major national firms, all in under three minutes. See who you match with today. If you have a traditional IRA and you're somewhere between the day you stopped working and the day the IRS starts dictating your withdrawals, you're sitting on the single best tax window of your life.
It's called a Roth conversion, and executed during the gap years between retirement and required minimum distributions, it can quietly empty out the account the IRS was planning to tax on its own schedule. Do it right and by 73, there's nothing left for the government to force out. A Roth IRA has no required minimum distributions for the original owner.
Every dollar you shift from a traditional IRA into a Roth in your 60s is a dollar that will never appear on an RMD schedule, never stack on top of Social Security, and never get pulled at the worst possible tax rate. You pay ordinary income tax on the converted amount in the year you convert, then the account grows tax-free for the rest of your life. The strategy is to deliberately fill up the low brackets before RMDs and Social Security force your income higher.
Most Americans suspect they're behind on retirement and never find out. Advisor.com's free matching tool pairs you in about three minutes with a vetted fiduciary advisor who can help you with investing, taxes, retirement, estate planning, and more. Find out where you stand.
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