I'm thinking of taking advantage of some low income years and the depressed value of my portfolio by doing some Roth conversions. The idea is to roll my 401(k) over to a traditional IRA, then judiciously convert some amount each year to Roth IRA and pay the taxes on it now while the values and my income are both down. My question is, are there things I haven't thought about with respect to Roth IRAs that I should take into consideration in my planning? For example, are there issues around the ability to withdraw money before age 59.5, treatment with respect to AGI limitations, estate planning issues, upcoming tax law changes, and so on, that might lead me to change my thinking here? It seems to me like a good time to get some money out of my tax deferred accounts.
Issues about dealing with non-deductible contributions, form 8606, and such were just dealt with in a different thread - no issues there. I'm also aware of the general advantages/disadvantages of rolling the 401(k) to an IRA, and how that should be done. I'm more interested in the planning aspects of the conversion, just to be sure I'm not overlooking something.
Thanks, Whit M.