Craig Wear, CFP® explains that performing Roth conversions after about age 75 generally offers tax savings but — because of limited remaining lifespan — is unlikely to be financially worthwhile for the account owner alone. He notes conversions may still make sense if the primary goal is to simplify inheritance for heirs (avoiding taxable RMDs and the 10-year payout rule), but decisions should be individualized.
The bottom line statement to you that I'll say is that if you do conversions after about 75 years old and there's no hard stop on that, it needs to be determined for everybody. But generally around that age, there's probably not enough time left in your life span for a financial calculation to be able to prove to you that it was worth it for you to do it to benefit you. There still will be tax savings for you, but I don't think it's going to be enough to offset the cost of doing it. However, if you're really concerned about, gee, what am I going to leave for my kids and my heirs, whoever those are going to be, and what are the how are they going to deal with all this money sitting in a taxable account that they have to take RMDs from? They got to distribute it within 10 years. Anytime they need something, they got to pay taxes. If you're really trying to make sure that you're not, you're not going to leave them with just a mess and force taxation on them, then Roth conversions can make some sense.
