Break regular IRA into smaller accounts when doing Roth conversion

July 25, 2012

The author is a Norristown, PA tax and estate-planning specialist, and an editorial consultant to this magazine.

Thinking about changing to a Roth IRA? Learn whether it makes sense to create smaller accounts.

A: It depends. Some people choose to separate their IRA into smaller accounts with different asset classes when they convert to a Roth account, so that if one class drops in value and the others rise, they can re-convert the poorer-performing account back to a regular IRA.