Excellent article on Roth conversion strategies

I found it worth the time to read through (although I did not delve into the examples in detail).

Two comments:

1) the discussion of how to avoid anti-cherry-picking rules when recharacterizing conversions was interesting, but it also seems like a way to generate a lot of extra fees for financial planners and tax accountants in anticipation of tax savings that may or may not ever happen, or that may not be maximized (because you missed the optimum time to recharacterize while waiting for the time limit clock to run out). 2) nowhere did it mention what I still consider one of the more valuable benefits of conversion: starting the five-year clock on avoiding early distribution penalties.

-Mark Bole

-- Ron