Should a retiree convert $50,000 a year before Social Security?

David's starting plan

The optimizer may convert from age 60 through 71, stops before age 72, limits requested conversions to $50,000 per year, fills no bracket above 22%, and uses the “Avoid conversion-caused IRMAA increases” guardrail.

The three policies

No Roth conversions

David leaves the Traditional IRA unchanged except for spending withdrawals and later RMDs. This avoids conversion tax now but preserves more future taxable IRA income.

Fixed $50,000 per year

The planner requests $50,000 every eligible year. The engine can reduce a request when spending, taxes, RMDs, or the remaining IRA balance require it.

Optimized bracket-target schedule

The optimizer tests eligible federal brackets and conversion schedules, then compares spending coverage, after-tax portfolio value, and incremental IRMAA under the selected limits. It recommends filling up to the 22% federal bracket in this example.

Modeled deterministic results

Taxes, IRMAA, and balances below are expressed in first-projection-year purchasing power and rounded. All three policies cover modeled spending through age 95 on this single lower-return path.

The fixed policy has the largest modeled age-95 after-tax balance and the lowest estimated tax, but it causes approximately $8,654 of incremental IRMAA and therefore violates David's selected guardrail. The optimizer recommends the 22% bracket-target schedule because it improves the age-95 result over No Conversion while remaining inside the guardrail.

What the schedule looks like

The recommended conversion is not a flat amount. It starts near $24,000 at age 60, varies with modeled taxable income, rises after Social Security begins, and reaches the $50,000 cap at ages 70 and 71. The exact amount is recalculated from the current inputs and projected bracket room.

This is a planning estimate, not an instruction to make a transaction. Actual conversions require current-year income, deductions, tax law, account values, withholding, estimated payments, and Medicare consequences that an annual projection cannot know in advance.

What David could learn

• Conversions can raise taxes now while reducing later taxable IRA balances and RMD pressure.
• The lowest lifetime tax estimate does not automatically satisfy an IRMAA preference.
• A fixed amount is easy to understand but may ignore annual bracket room.
• An optimized schedule is sensitive to assumptions and should be refreshed each year.
• No Conversion remains a useful baseline even when another strategy produces a stronger ending result.

Recreate the study

1. Open the planner and select Explore Sample Plans.
2. Choose Roth Conversion Opportunity.
3. Select the 67 · No Roth row.
4. Run the Roth Conversion Optimizer with the default 22% bracket, $50,000 maximum, and IRMAA guardrail.
5. Compare No Conversion, Fixed, and the recommended bracket-target candidate before applying a schedule.

Related guides and sources

• How to compare Roth conversion strategies
• IRMAA retirement planning
• IRS: Roth comparison chart
• SSA: Medicare income-related adjustments
• Planner Methodology