skipro, you've been facing your cancer situation bravely, so I feel like I can say this and not come off as insensitive. If you die early, what tax bracket will your wife be in? Probably 24%, which is only 2% higher, for now. But those rates may not be renewed in 2026 or whatever year the rate drop expires.
It's been posted time and time again that if your current and future tax rates are the same, letting money grow in an IRA does no better than doing the conversion and paying the tax now. And it does better in the Roth if you convert the whole amount and pay taxes from taxable. It's very easy to see in a spreadsheet, or you can just find one of the many times that pb4uski has posted the proof.
Yes, but...you'll have to pay RMDs for all those years from 72 until you are incapacitated enough to need LTC. And there is a criteria to meet, namely: that the person is a danger to themself, or is unable to perform at least two activities of daily living without substantial assistance from another individual for at least 90 days, due to a loss of functional capacity. Activities of daily living are eating, toileting, transferring, bathing, dressing, and continence.
Not everyone in the 80s or even 90s will meet this criteria.