Roth conversions: When the ‘juice isn't really worth the squeeze,’ according to a top-ranked advisor

Roth individual retirement account conversions can potentially reduce lifetime taxes . But the strategy isn't right for everyone, and the choice is now more complex amid updates from President Donald Trump 's "big beautiful bill" and other changes. Roth conversions transfer pretax or nondeductible IRA funds into a Roth IRA, which kick-starts tax-free growth. The trade-off is that they can trigger more income in the year of the conversion. The move can be attractive if you have large pretax retirement balances and you expect higher tax rates when it's time to withdraw the funds , experts say. At year-end 2025, IRA-owning households in the U.S. had $15.9 trillion in assets in traditional IRAs, compared with $2.