Do THIS Instead of a Roth Conversion

So here's why I'm so strong on this topic, because we see client after client who comes in and sees us, and they've got millions of dollars, they've got this generous pension, and they end up never utilizing it or finding that true fulfillment of what to do with it.

They've come to us at a point where they're just saying, hey, I've accumulated all this, I really don't know how I did, because it felt like I was living paycheck to paycheck, probably many of you understand that feeling, but now I've got all this wealth, and what should I do? And so for that person, when they come to us, we can run a really awesome Roth conversion analysis.

We do incredible tax planning for our clients.

We can optimize and save hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes in most cases that we see.

And that looks really awesome on paper.

We can show their net worth growing.

We can see their investments growing with the tax efficiency of it.

It's a really great plan.

But the question I always find myself asking is, why are we doing this? What is the purpose? And I'm not saying that that is not meaningful and I'm not saying that's not what we should do.

That's all meaningful planning.

That's all part of us stewarding our life savings well and ensuring that we can do what's best for it.

But what is that to you? What is that to you? Is it for you to spend more money? Is it for you to gift more money to your loved ones? Because as we know, at the end of time, when you pass, your money will go to your heirs, to whoever your beneficiaries are on your account.

I'm sure if you're a married couple watching this, that beneficiary will be the other spouse.

And then when that spouse passes, it will likely be the children.

And then that's where the money is going to get transferred.

And that could be great if that is your goal.

But remember, you are likely going to have millions of dollars when you pass away.

Do you want all that million dollars to go to your kids? And the answer may be yes.

I'm not trying to challenge you there.

But if it is, how much is enough for the kids? And if you're okay with it being $5 million, great.

That's where Roth conversion can be really attractive for people is in the legacy planning, especially knowing that they can leave that money to them tax-free.

The kids don't have to worry about taking it out in 10 years.

They don't have to worry about that moment in time where there's that widow's penalty before the other spouse passes to where now the taxes go from married, filing jointly to single.

And so there could be a lot of reasons to do the Roth conversions early on.

But what I want to talk about is those people who are okay not leaving $5 million to the kids, who say, I'd rather enjoy it now.