Craig Wear, CFP, explains why converting IRAs to Roth accounts in your late 50s and 60s cuts future Required Minimum Distributions and tax bills for heirs. The strategy works best before RMD age kicks in, and matters less if you have no one to leave money to.
So the strategy in this is look by by planning your Roth conversions and doing them in your late 50s and your 60s, you can reduce your total IRA balance well in advance and that's going to result in some smaller RMDs later when you reach that mandatory distribution age. If you're in your mid-70s you just need to know that it's worth doing. But the benefits you're going to get during your lifetime are not going to be anywhere near what you're going to create in benefits for your heirs. So if you don't have any heirs or you don't really care, then once you get into your mid-70s you probably don't need to do as aggressive of conversions. Now if you still have a large balance and you don't want to leave your heirs with this big tax mess, then there still is a lot of reason to consider it. Just know that they probably are going to get the bigger benefit than you are.
