Is a Roth Conversion Right for You? A Balanced Look

I was a pretty good amateur tennis player. Got ranked as high as #2 in South Carolina in both singles and doubles at the 4.0 level. It CERTAINLY wasn’t because of my speed or strength. It was mainly because I had a great forehand AND backhand. This makes it harder for my opponent to exploit any weakness.

Same goes for the tax man.

A truly balanced portfolio is also balanced from a tax standpoint. This gives you the most options.

One of the ways to have a healthy ‘tax balance’ is by having both pretax accounts and Roth accounts.

This brings me to Roth Conversions…

What is a Roth conversion?

It’s simpler than it sounds. You move money from a traditional IRA, where it’s never been taxed, into a Roth IRA. You pay income tax on the amount you move this year. In exchange, that money grows tax-free, comes out tax-free later, and has no required withdrawals for the rest of your life. That’s the trade: pay tax now to skip it later.

How do your taxes decide whether to convert?

The whole decision comes down to one comparison. What’s your tax rate now, versus what will it be later?

If your rate is low now and you expect it to be higher later, converting makes sense. You pay the tax at today’s lower rate and lock in tax-free growth. This is the idea behind filling your lower tax brackets early.

If your rate is high now and you expect it to drop later, converting usually doesn’t make sense. You’d be paying tax at a high rate to avoid a lower one down the road.

So the real question isn’t “should I convert.” It’s “is my bracket lower now than it’ll be later?”

When is the best time to convert?

Low-income years. For a lot of retirees, that’s the window between the day the paycheck stops and the day Social Security and required withdrawals begin. Taxable income dips, sometimes for several years. That’s often the best conversion window of your life.

A down-market year can be another good moment — you’re converting shares while they’re temporarily lower, so the same dollars move over at a smaller tax cost.

What do RMDs have to do with it?

A lot. At age 73 — or 75 if you were born in 1960 or later — the government forces you to start taking money out of your traditional accounts, whether you need it or not. These are required minimum distributions, or RMDs.

If your traditional balance has grown large, those forced withdrawals can be big. They push up your taxes and can raise your Medicare premiums. Some people call this the tax bomb.

Converting earlier shrinks the traditional balance, so your future RMDs are smaller. And a Roth has no RMDs at all for the original owner. That’s one of the biggest reasons to convert while you’re in that low-income window.

Do QCDs change the math?

They can, if you’re charitably inclined. Once you’re 70½, a Qualified Charitable Distribution lets you send money straight from your IRA to a charity — up to $111,000 per person, or $222,000 for a married couple, in 2026. It counts toward your RMD and never shows up as taxable income.

So if giving is already part of your plan, a QCD is another way to draw down that traditional balance and manage RMDs — which may mean you don’t need to convert as much.

Should you convert to leave money to your kids?

This one cuts both ways.

A Roth is a wonderful thing to inherit. It comes out tax-free. And under current rules, most children who inherit an IRA have to empty it within 10 years. If your kids inherit a traditional IRA during their peak earning years, those withdrawals stack right on top of their salary — often at a high tax rate. Converting first spares them that.

But flip it around. If your kids will be in a lower bracket than you are, converting means you pay the tax at your higher rate so they can skip a lower one. In that case, leaving the traditional IRA alone might cost the family less overall.

The right answer depends on their situation as much as yours.

So how do you decide?

A Roth conversion isn’t a yes-or-no question. It’s a “how much, and in which years” question. The answer comes from looking at the whole picture together — your income, your brackets, your future RMDs, your charitable goals, and where your heirs will land.

Once you have your overall picture down, then you can decide whether to convert, and if so, when and how much.

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Jeremy Finger, Founder

Jeremy grew up in Nichols, South Carolina, where fishing with his dad sparked a lifelong interest in how money shapes our lives. Since becoming a financial advisor in 1996, he’s helped people navigate life’s biggest moments—and today, with Riverbend, he offers a calm, personal approach that helps clients focus on what matters.

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