CLE on Roth Conversions

The ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits is sponsoring a 90-minute teleconference on December 14 entitled Roth Conversions – A Yearend Look. The program information is below:

As 2010 ends and the first year in which Roth conversions became available to higher income individuals comes to a close, there is still time to convert traditional IRAs and, with recent IRS regulations, qualified plan accounts to Roth accounts this year in order to defer income tax on the conversion to 2011 and 2012. What individuals are likely to benefit most by paying the upfront conversion tax in order to gain income tax free distributions in the future? What are the conversion mechanics, the traps, and the recharacterization procedures to reverse the conversion?

The conference will address the following topics –

• What makes a Roth IRA a powerful wealth creation vehicle?
• How to convert a traditional IRA.
• Traps and tripwires that undercut conversions.
• The new rules for “in plan” conversions.
• Recharacterizations, “financial engineering”, and reconversions.
• Special tax payment deferral about to expire.
• Who benefits most in retirement?
• Estate tax, income tax, and stretch out – whose heirs benefit more?
• Beneficiary designations – the key to post-death deferral/recharacterizations.