Thinking about a Roth IRA Conversion?
Now may be the Ideal Time
Roth IRAs offer significant financial and estate planning benefits. If you have a substantial balance in a traditional IRA and are considering converting it to a Roth IRA, there may be no better time than now. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) reduces individual income tax rates through 2025. By making the conversion now, the TCJA both enhances the benefits of a Roth IRA and reduces the cost of converting.
Roth IRA Estate Planning Benefits
The main difference between traditional and Roth IRAs is the timing of income taxes. With a traditional IRA, your eligible contributions are deductible but distributions of both contributions and earnings are taxable. With a Roth IRA, on the other hand, your contributions are nondeductible — that is, they’re made with after-tax dollars — but qualified distributions of both contributions and earnings are tax-free. As a general rule, from a tax perspective, you’re better off with a Roth IRA if you expect your tax rate to be higher when it comes time to withdraw the funds. That’s because you pay the tax up-front, when your tax rate is lower.
From an estate planning perspective, Roth IRAs have two distinct advantages. First, unlike a traditional IRA, a Roth IRA doesn’t mandate required minimum distributions (RMDs) beginning at age 70½. If your other assets are sufficient to meet your living expenses, you can allow the funds in a Roth IRA to continue growing tax-free for the rest of your life, multiplying the amount available for your loved ones. Second, your children or other beneficiaries can withdraw funds from a Roth IRA tax-free. In contrast, an inherited traditional IRA comes with a sizable income tax bill.
Why Now?
The TCJA’s tax changes may make it an ideal time for a Roth IRA conversion. As previously discussed, Roth IRAs offer tax advantages if you expect your tax rate to be higher in the future. By temporarily lowering individual income tax rates, the TCJA ensures that your tax rate will increase in 2026 (unless a future Congress lowers tax rates). Future tax rates are irrelevant, of course, if you plan to hold the funds for life and leave them to your loved ones. In that case, you’re generally better off with a Roth IRA, which avoids RMDs and allows the full balance to continue growing tax-free.
Another reason to convert now is that lower current income tax rates reduce the cost of conversion. When you convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, you pay taxes (but not penalties) on the amounts you convert, to the extent they’re attributable to deductible contributions and earnings on those contributions. Converting now, when individual income tax rates are lower, will likely cost less than converting after 2025, when tax rates are scheduled to return to their previous levels.
One good strategy for softening the tax blow is to do the conversion gradually between now and 2026. This allows you to spread the cost over eight years. Also, by reducing the amount converted in a given year, you minimize the chances that the income generated by the conversion itself will push you into a higher tax bracket.
Proceed with Caution
If you’re contemplating a Roth IRA conversion, be sure to discuss the costs, benefits and potential risks with your advisor. It’s important to be cautious because, once you convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, you’re stuck with it.