Short YouTube advice segment by Craig Wear, CFP® about year-end Roth conversions. The speaker emphasizes establishing a Roth IRA account ahead of time, recommends converting first from the oldest spouse’s IRAs or the spouse with larger balances (unless a large age discrepancy exists), and advises opening the Roth at the same custodian where existing IRAs are held for convenience.
The first thing is maybe very obvious. It's amazing how many people overlook this. You need to get a Roth IRA account established. You don't have to wait until the day you're going to do the conversion to get it done. We typically suggest that you convert first from either the oldest spouse's IRAs or your spouse that has the larger balances. Unless there's a big age discrepancy, then you want to go with the oldest anyway. Where should you do that at? That's kind of up to you. Wherever your IRA is is probably a good enough place, because you're there, and you wouldn't be there if you didn't like what they were doing for you. And so if you already have an account at a custodian, then just open up a Roth IRA there.
