I am in a disagreement with my CPA about conversions. He strongly feels against them, refuses to consider them for himself, simply put, he would prefer to accumulate more wealth with tax deferrals and letting the government contribute to that. He is 68 and still deferring.
His words, "I don't care about the tax after I'm dead, my kids can deal with it." He isn't worried about RMD's.
That's his view as recently as August of this year.
A retired CPA here. If your CPA lives to be 100 then he might care more. In my experience, few CPAs are really knowledgable about personal financial planning and retirement planning unless they are one of the few who specialize in that niche practice area. Most CPAs are audit or tax focused and are clueless about when Roth conversions are beneficial and when they are not.
He might not yet have done the math and thinks that deferral is always better which is a popular misconception. If you do the math, Roth conversions are really just a tax arbitrage game... voluntarily paying some now to avoid paying more later. Me and other retired CPAs and financial professionals on this forum who have studied Roth conversions think that it makes a lot of sense in many, but not all, circumstances.
In fairness, it is also situational... a tradeoff between what one would pay in tax today vs later. If unstarted pensions and SS will push you from 12% to 22%, then there are substantial savings to be had to at least convert to the top of the 12% bracket. OTOH, if unstarted pensions and SS will push you from 22% to 24% then it isn't very lucrative. So while if may not be lucrative for him, it might be worthwhile for you or vice versa.
For us, the benefits are substantial so we are doing them. For a more modest income friend, he can make measured withdrawals in the first decade and never pay federal taxes again as long as he lives unless he sells his rental property so I recommended that he just do withdrawals from tax-deferred to his brokerage account rather than Roth conversions.
For many people in ER living off of taxable savings until pensions and SS start will have headroom to do 0%, 10% or 12% Roth conversions vs paying 22% once pensions and SS start so it is a no brainer.