Convert to a Roth Before It's Too Late ⏳

Number 1, a surviving spouse is going to have less income from Social Security. There's no way around it. They will. One of those Social Security checks goes away, which means number 2, they're going to rely more on retirement income from a retirement account, which brings into the play IRD, income in respect of a decedent. So when you collect that retirement account on behalf of your deceased spouse, you're paying tax on it unless you take advantage of a Roth conversion, which brings us to the third issue. In the year they pass away, you've got a favorable tax bracket you want to take advantage of and convert more as you, as much as you can to Roth, keeping in that 24% bracket, because the year after they pass away, you're going to be in a single tax bracket. Cut all of that in half. We can deal with it if we talk about it and we get that done when you do your estate planning.