CFP Craig Wear argues that most high-net-worth retirees should do partial Roth conversions over 4-10 years, not all at once. This keeps you in a lower tax bracket, reduces future required minimum distributions, and controls Medicare premium increases. Many clients paid the conversion taxes from the IRA itself and still saved millions.
Here's something that surprises people. The goal is usually not to convert everything. For most IRA millionaires, the smartest plan is a partial conversion strategy spread over multiple years. Four years, six years, sometimes 10 years. Why? Because we want to keep you in a favorable tax range. Control Medicare premiums. Reduce RMDs before they explode. Preserve flexibility. We often leave a small amount in the IRA on purpose. Planning always beats guessing while planning. A question you really need to ask yourself up front is do I have cash available to pay the taxes, or will the taxes need to be paid from within the ira? A lot of people mistakenly believe that unless they have cash sitting there, Roth conversions just aren't worth it. That's far from the truth. Many of our clients had to pay taxes from within the ira, and it still worked. They saved millions of dollars in taxes by making that decision.
