Episode 405: The Hidden Reason Married Couples Need Roth Conversions

One spouse passes away, and suddenly the survivor is filing alone, pushed into tax brackets they never saw coming. David McKnight explains why a Roth conversion, done now through smart retirement planning, could spare your loved ones the painful surprise known as Widow's Penalty. Show Notes In this episode, David McKnight discusses something that could cause your taxes to rise dramatically even if Congress never raises taxes by a single percentage point! That's the so-called Widow's Penalty, and it's a critical piece of retirement planning that too many people overlook. The U.S. national debt consists of hundreds of trillions of dollars in unfunded obligations for programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. At some point, David points out, the Government is going to need huge infusions of cash to meet those obligations. Most people don't realize that a surviving spouse often inherits a tax problem at the moment in life when they're least equipped to deal with it –...