The gap between the day you retire and the day Required Minimum Distributions begin is short.
It is also the single best tax opportunity most retirees will ever get.
Most people spend it doing nothing, and that silence is the expensive part.
This is the Roth conversion window. Here is exactly how to use it before it closes on your 73rd birthday.
The Window Explained
A Required Minimum Distribution, or RMD, is the mandatory annual withdrawal the Internal Revenue Service requires from traditional retirement accounts starting at age 73, under the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act, known as SECURE 2.0. Every dollar in those accounts was set aside pre-tax, and the government has been waiting to collect its share.
Before that withdrawal is forced on you, there is a stretch of years when almost nothing is pulling your taxable income up. The paycheck has stopped. Social Security may not have started. The forced withdrawals have not begun. For many recent retirees, this is the lowest-tax period of their entire adult life, and depending on when you retire, it can last anywhere from a few years to more than a decade.
That valley is not empty space. It is a planning window, and the tool that makes the most of it is the Roth conversion.
The Strategy: Fill the Bracket, Do Not Guess
At King Legacy Group, we treat this window the way we treat every planning opportunity: strategy first, product second. The strategy is a multi-year Roth conversion ladder, sized to your bracket every single year. The specific accounts and products used to carry it out come second, because tax law and product shelves change while the underlying strategy holds.
What a Roth Conversion Actually Does
A Roth conversion means moving money from a traditional, pre-tax retirement account into a Roth account. You pay ordinary income tax on the amount you convert in the year you convert it. In exchange, that money grows tax-free from that point forward, comes out tax-free in retirement, and is never subject to Required Minimum Distributions during your lifetime. You are not avoiding the tax. You are choosing when, and at what rate, you pay it.
The Bracket-Filling Math
In 2026 there is no income limit and no dollar cap on how much you can convert. The discipline is in the sizing, using a technique called bracket-filling: each year you convert just enough taxable income to reach the top of your current tax bracket, without spilling into the next one.
Here is what that can look like. Take a married couple, both retired, with no other taxable income in 2026: no Social Security started, no pension, no wages. Between the standard deduction and the width of the 12 percent tax bracket for joint filers, they have roughly $133,000 of room to convert before they would owe tax at the next bracket's rate. Convert $50,000 and leave nearly $83,000 of that low-cost room unused. Convert $180,000 and a chunk of it spills into a materially higher bracket than necessary. The number that matters is the ceiling of the bracket you are already in, calculated fresh every year, because tax brackets, your income, and your account balances all move.
Why the Clock Matters
This window closes the moment Required Minimum Distributions begin. Once they start, they stack on top of whatever other income you already have, which usually pushes you into a higher bracket than the one you enjoyed in your low-income years, not a lower one. And skipping a Required Minimum Distribution once it is required is not an option: the penalty for missing it is a 25 percent excise tax on the amount you should have withdrawn, reduced to 10 percent if you correct the mistake quickly. Converting ahead of time does not just save tax, it shrinks the balance that will eventually force a distribution at all.
IRMAA and Social Security Coordination Traps
A Roth conversion is not free money. It raises your taxable income in the year you convert, and that has ripple effects two other systems are watching closely.
The IRMAA Cliff
The Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount, or IRMAA, is an additional Medicare premium surcharge applied to higher-income retirees on top of standard Part B and Part D premiums. Medicare looks at your Modified Adjusted Gross Income, or MAGI, from two years earlier to set this year's premium, which means a conversion you make at age 63 can raise your Medicare premium at age 65. IRMAA does not phase in gradually. It moves in tiers, and crossing a threshold by even one dollar can trigger a materially higher premium for the entire year, for both spouses on Medicare. A conversion sized without checking these thresholds can quietly cost more in higher premiums than it saves in future tax.
Converting Before Social Security Starts
Up to 85 percent of Social Security benefits can become taxable once your combined income crosses certain thresholds, and a large Roth conversion adds directly to that combined income calculation. This is why the window before you file for Social Security is often the cleanest time to convert: there is one fewer moving part competing for the same bracket space. Converting after benefits have started is not disqualifying, it simply requires coordinating the conversion amount with the Social Security taxation thresholds as well as the tax bracket and IRMAA thresholds, which is exactly the kind of multi-year sequencing that should not be done by guesswork.
Adding a 7702 Account: A Second Tax-Free Bucket Beyond Roth Limits
A Roth conversion ladder can move a large pre-tax balance into tax-free territory, but it is bounded by your bracket and by the size of the account you are converting. For clients who want a second stream of tax-free retirement income, one that is not capped by conversion room or by annual Roth contribution limits, we often layer in a max-funded 7702 account, named for the section of the Internal Revenue Code that governs it. Structured and funded properly, it can provide access to tax-free income through policy loans, alongside the Roth dollars already converted, without adding to the balance that drives your Required Minimum Distributions. The conversion strategy comes first. The 7702 account is a complementary bucket, not a replacement for sizing your conversions correctly.
A Hypothetical Case Study
The following is a fictional, composite scenario for educational purposes only. It does not represent any actual client or client result.
Consider a couple we will call the Ashworths, ages 64 and 65, both recently retired with a combined $850,000 in traditional Individual Retirement Accounts. Neither has started Social Security. They have eight years before Required Minimum Distributions begin.
With no other taxable income in 2026, the Ashworths have roughly $133,000 of room to convert before spilling out of their current bracket. Rather than convert it all at once, and rather than let it sit unused, they convert $100,000 in year one, leaving a buffer below the ceiling to absorb any interest, dividends, or part-time consulting income that shows up unexpectedly. They repeat a similar, freshly calculated conversion each year, checking that year's bracket width and the Medicare IRMAA thresholds two years out before finalizing the amount.
Over five years, they move more than $450,000 into Roth accounts, paying tax at a rate they chose rather than one forced on them later. By age 73, their remaining traditional IRA balance, and therefore their Required Minimum Distribution, is a fraction of what it would have been. Less of their Social Security is exposed to taxation, and their Medicare premiums stay clear of the next IRMAA tier. To extend their tax-free income further, they also fund a 7702 account with a portion of their non-retirement savings, adding a second bucket they can draw from without touching their bracket at all.
These numbers are illustrative. Bracket widths change every year, and the right conversion amount depends on your specific income, deductions, and filing status, which is exactly why the sizing should be reviewed annually rather than set once and forgotten.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much should I convert to a Roth IRA in 2026 before RMDs start?
There is no single dollar figure that fits everyone, because the right amount depends on your current tax bracket, your other income, and how many years remain before you turn 73. As a general approach, most Retirement-Ready savers with little or no other taxable income can convert up to the ceiling of their current federal tax bracket each year without pushing into a higher rate. For a married couple with no other income in 2026, that ceiling can be roughly $133,000 within the 12 percent bracket alone. The number should be recalculated every year and checked against Medicare IRMAA thresholds before it is finalized.
What is a Roth conversion ladder?
A Roth conversion ladder is a multi-year plan that converts a portion of a traditional retirement account into a Roth account each year, sized to fill the current tax bracket without spilling into the next one. Instead of converting a large balance all at once, which can trigger a much higher tax rate, the ladder spreads the conversions across the years before Required Minimum Distributions begin, when income and taxes are typically at their lowest.
Will a Roth conversion affect my Medicare premiums?
It can. Roth conversion income counts toward the Modified Adjusted Gross Income that Medicare uses, on a two-year lookback, to calculate the Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount, or IRMAA, an added premium surcharge for higher-income retirees. A conversion that is not checked against IRMAA thresholds before it is finalized can trigger a higher Medicare premium for the following two years, which is why conversion amounts should always be reviewed against those thresholds.
Can I still do a Roth conversion after Social Security has started?
Yes, but it requires more coordination. Once Social Security benefits begin, conversion income adds to the combined income calculation that determines how much of your benefit is taxable, up to 85 percent. Conversions are still possible and often still worthwhile. They simply need to be sized with the Social Security taxation thresholds in mind, in addition to your tax bracket and IRMAA thresholds.
What happens if I miss a Required Minimum Distribution once they begin?
The penalty is steep: a 25 percent excise tax on the amount you should have withdrawn, reduced to 10 percent if you correct the mistake quickly. This is one of the reasons the pre-73 conversion window matters so much. Shrinking the balance that will eventually generate a Required Minimum Distribution reduces both the size of the forced withdrawal and the risk of an expensive mistake later.
The pre-73 window does not reopen once it closes. At King Legacy Group, we build the year-by-year conversion sequence for you, checked against your bracket, your IRMAA thresholds, and your Social Security timeline, so the tax you pay is the tax you chose. This is what a designed LivingLEGACY™ looks like in practice: control over your money, your taxes, and your timeline.
The Roth conversion window is open right now, and it will not stay that way. Schedule your strategy review here.
Complimentary. No pressure. A clear path to your LivingLEGACY™.
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