Episode 400: The Hidden Reason Married Couples Need Roth Conversions

David McKnight kicks off this Power of Zero Show episode by stressing that, in his opinion, tax rates in the future are likely to be much higher than they are today. Why? Because the U.S. has a national debt that continues to grow at an alarming rate. It has hundreds of trillions of dollars in unfunded obligations for programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. At some point, the Government is going to need huge infusions of cash to meet such obligations. The so-called "Widow's Penalty" is a very compelling reason, David believes, to consider doing Roth conversions while today's tax rates are still around. And that's true even if you don't think that future tax rates will be higher than the current ones… David explains how, when a spouse passes away before the other, the surviving spouse often inherits a tax problem at a moment in life when they're least equipped to deal with it. The ugly truth is that, in many cases, surviving spouses earn nearly the same amount of income a...