LRDave
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I am still lucky enough to have my 87 year-old father and 85 year-old mother in my life. (I'm 53.) My dad has managed their finances well enough to-date. They have a MegaCorp pension for my dad and local government employee pension for my mom, plus SS for both. They have a small IRA with about $93K left in it.
Heretofore, my dad has never asked my advice on anything financial and I have never offered, as they were doing well enough. Last week, he asked me to look over his taxes and that allowed to do a back-of-a-paper-napkin audit of their finances. Really, they are doing fine. Short of them getting swindled or some economic upheaval, there doesn't seem to be anything to worry too much about. (With a full understanding that end-of-life care costs could easily swallow up all they have....)
I did notice that:
1) They have only taken minimum distributions from their traditional IRA.
2) Their income is still well below (relatively speaking) the top of the 15% tax bracket.
I have only recently become "enlightened" and so am still a newbie with newbie questions.
Isn't it sort of low-hanging fruit to move $ out of their traditional IRA and into a Roth, up to the 15% bracket level? Or I wonder if given the relatively small $ we are talking about, plus the capital retention strategy they'll want in their situation, plus the not-inconsiderable time it will take me to explain this all to them if I should just let it ride?
Any thoughts or insights appreciated!
Heretofore, my dad has never asked my advice on anything financial and I have never offered, as they were doing well enough. Last week, he asked me to look over his taxes and that allowed to do a back-of-a-paper-napkin audit of their finances. Really, they are doing fine. Short of them getting swindled or some economic upheaval, there doesn't seem to be anything to worry too much about. (With a full understanding that end-of-life care costs could easily swallow up all they have....)
I did notice that:
1) They have only taken minimum distributions from their traditional IRA.
2) Their income is still well below (relatively speaking) the top of the 15% tax bracket.
I have only recently become "enlightened" and so am still a newbie with newbie questions.
Isn't it sort of low-hanging fruit to move $ out of their traditional IRA and into a Roth, up to the 15% bracket level? Or I wonder if given the relatively small $ we are talking about, plus the capital retention strategy they'll want in their situation, plus the not-inconsiderable time it will take me to explain this all to them if I should just let it ride?
Any thoughts or insights appreciated!