The Roth Conversion Window Is Open. Here's How to Use It

A Roth conversion is, at its core, a tax bet: you pay tax now on dollars you move from a traditional account to a Roth, and those dollars — plus all their growth — come out tax-free forever. The math favors the strategy most when two conditions align.

First, the market is down. Converting depressed shares means paying tax on a smaller balance, then letting the recovery compound tax-free. Second, your marginal rate this year is lower than the rate you expect in retirement — a sabbatical, a gap year, or a planned low-income window.

The mistake we see most often is converting too much in a single year and pushing income into a bracket that erases the advantage. Staged conversions — spreading the move across several years — keep the marginal rate controlled and the long-term savings intact.

Every conversion should be modeled against your full picture: Social Security timing, Medicare IRMAA surcharges, and Required Minimum Distributions. That's why we run the numbers before we run the conversion.