Craig Wear, CFP®Craig Wear, CFP® | Expert in Roth Conversions & Tax-Efficient Retirement Strategies for IRA Millionaires

The Cost Of NOT Roth Converting

2 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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In this segment Craig Wear, CFP®, illustrates the financial danger a surviving spouse faces when a couple has not performed Roth IRA conversions before one partner dies. Using a hypothetical married couple, Dave and Carol, he explains that while they file jointly they benefit from wide married tax brackets, but after Dave’s death Carol must file as a single taxpayer. The required minimum distributions (RMDs) from Dave’s IRA total $336,000 in a single year, pushing Carol into a much higher tax bracket. Without prior Roth conversions, Carol’s first year of widowhood would incur a $136,000 tax bill, whereas if Roth conversions had been completed beforehand, her tax liability would drop to about $16,000. Wear frames this stark contrast as a compelling reason to use Roth conversions as a protective strategy for surviving spouses, emphasizing the emotional and financial relief it provides during a difficult time.

Chapters

Right now, Dave and Carol file one tax return together, and married tax brackets are pretty wide, meaning a lot of dollars within that bracket. But what happens if Dave passes before Carol? Well, if Dave never sets up conversions, Carol is left with a tax nightmare as a widow. Almost nothing about her financial life changes. She's got the same house, probably the same bills, and the IRS is still pulling money out of the IRA through RMDs, $336,000 just in that year alone. Now she files single starting the next tax year, and those brackets that used to fit 2 people just got cut roughly in half, which means a much bigger tax bill each year after that. Without conversions, Carol's tax bill that first year on her own is $136,000. She shouldn't have to deal with that during probably the hardest year of her life. But with the conversions already done, she only pays $16,000 in taxes. That's what real protection looks like.