08/24/2026
In a recent case study, we looked at a hypothetical couple, Dave and Susan, who have $1.5M sitting in pre-tax retirement accounts.
Dave's required withdrawals (RMDs) don't kick in until age 75, since he was born after 1959.
Those years between now and then, from age 61 to 74, are some of the most valuable years for tax planning he'll ever have.
The strategy: convert some of that money to Roth now, while he's in a lower tax bracket, instead of waiting until RMDs force bigger withdrawals later.
For a married couple filing jointly this year, the 12% tax bracket goes up to $100,800 in taxable income, plus a $32,200 standard deduction on top of that.
So there's real room to convert some of that $1.5M now and pay tax at 12% or 22%, rather than leaving it to grow and get taxed later at a rate you can't control.
That's the whole idea behind a Roth conversion window: pay a known, lower tax bill now to diffuse a bigger one later.
Watch the full video to see how Ken Petrashek CFP®, and Courtney Hoffman, CFP®, AAMS™ break this real-world case study down.