What is a Roth conversion and should I do one?

A Roth conversion involves moving money from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, paying taxes now in exchange for tax-free growth and withdrawals in the future. Whether it makes sense depends on your current tax bracket, expected future income, Medicare situation, and time horizon. It is one of the most valuable — and most misunderstood — strategies in retirement tax planning. We have written extensively about this in our Tax Planning Series on the Riverstone blog.