I would think it would be the other way around. Often the largest benefit of the Roth conversion is that by paying the tax on the conversion out of other money (if you can), you're effectively contributing an amount equal to the tax to your IRA. Often the next largest benefit of the Roth conversion is that there are no RMDs during lifetime (and the lifetime of your spouse if you leave your IRA to your spouse).As I see it, the primary benefit of Roth conversion depends on your marginal tax rate being lower when you convert as opposed to when you eventually withdraw, although there is a secondary benefit of de facto increasing the amount of funds which get tax-free-growth.
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If you can convert at a rate lower than the rate that would otherwise apply to distribution, that's an additional benefit. That benefit is often larger than it was before SECURE now that distributions after death are usually bunched into 10 years.
Statistics: Posted by bsteiner — Sat Aug 23, 2025 8:20 am — Replies 20 — Views 2074