Best Advisor for Roth Conversion and RMD Planning in Arizona

Roth conversion and RMD planning is a multi-year tax problem, not a single-year number. Every dollar converted is added to ordinary income in the year of the conversion, so the real question is how much to convert in each of the years between retirement and the start of RMDs. Under SECURE 2.0, the RMD start age is 73 for people born 1951 through 1959 (IRS proposed regulations from July 2024 use 73 for 1959 births, so confirm your birth year) and 75 for people born in 1960 or later. Roth IRAs do not have RMDs for the original owner. An advisor should be able to show your conversion room year by year, with the brackets and thresholds written down, not a verbal estimate.

Several thresholds sit on top of the federal brackets, and a competent plan models all of them together. For Medicare premiums, the Social Security Administration generally uses your tax return from two years earlier to set the income-related monthly adjustment amount (IRMAA), so a conversion in 2026 can raise your 2028 Part B and Part D premiums. In 2026, CMS puts the first IRMAA threshold at $109,000 of modified adjusted gross income for single filers and $218,000 for joint filers, and a single dollar over a line moves you to the next tier. Before Medicare at 65, the ACA premium tax credit ends above 400% of the federal poverty level for 2026 coverage, which is about $84,600 for a two-person household in the 48 states and DC. The enhanced credits that removed that limit expired December 31, 2025, so confirm the current rule before you size a conversion.

Social Security and charitable giving belong in the same model. Up to 85% of Social Security benefits can be included in federal taxable income once combined income passes $34,000 for single filers or $44,000 for joint filers, and those thresholds are set by statute and are not indexed for inflation (IRS Publication 915). A conversion can pull more benefits into taxable income, which makes the effective rate on that slice of the conversion higher than the bracket rate. Qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) can go the other way: starting at age 70½, an IRA owner can send money directly to a qualified charity, up to $111,000 per person in 2026 under IRS Notice 2025-67, and the amount can count toward an RMD. A QCD lowers the IRA balance and the income that RMDs would otherwise create.

Arizona changes the math less than most states, but it still has to be in the model. Arizona taxes income at a flat 2.5% for tax years 2023 and later. Arizona subtracts the Social Security benefits that are included in federal adjusted gross income, so benefits are not taxed by the state (A.R.S. 43-1022). Qualified Roth IRA withdrawals are not part of federal taxable income, so they are not taxed by Arizona either. A conversion is taxed by Arizona in the year it happens, at 2.5% before Arizona's own deductions, so the state cost is real but small next to the federal and Medicare effects.

The structure of the advisor's pay also matters here. A Roth conversion can reduce the assets an advisor charges on, mainly when the tax is paid from managed accounts or the Roth account is held elsewhere, even when the household ends up with more after-tax wealth. An advisor paid as a percentage of assets has a structural conflict on that specific recommendation. That is not an accusation, and many AUM advisors recommend conversions anyway, but it is a fair question to ask directly. Who prepares your return also matters, because a conversion is only as good as the tax return it lands on. A CFP® professional is trained and certified in financial planning, and an enrolled agent (EA) is federally authorized to represent taxpayers before the IRS. Ask whether the plan numbers and the return numbers come from the same source.

Ask for a multi-year projection before you sign anything, not a one-year conversion number. A useful projection runs from today through at least your RMD start age and shows taxable income, federal tax, Arizona tax, IRMAA tier and, if you are under 65, ACA subsidy status for each year. Ask the advisor to explain why each year's conversion is the size it is. If the answer is a round number with no threshold behind it, the work was probably not done.

Then ask how the advisor would size a conversion for a household like yours. In the illustrative table below, a married couple, both 64, with $40,000 of other income and a large pre-tax IRA, has very different costs at different conversion sizes. The answer should name the constraint that binds first, such as the IRMAA line, and say what year's Medicare premium it affects. Ask who prepares the return, how the advisor is paid in dollars on your actual assets, and whether the advisor has a conflict on conversions that reduce assets under management.

Check the answers against the sources, not the sales pitch. Look up the advisor on the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site, read Form ADV Part 2A, and verify any CFP® certification on the CFP Board's website. If an advisor cannot show you a written projection, will not discuss IRMAA or the ACA limit, or cannot explain how the advisor is paid, you have learned what you needed to know. The linked articles below cover how to vet a flat-fee advisor, how CFP®, EA and CPA credentials differ, and how conversion timing interacts with IRMAA.

• Accepting a single-year conversion number, such as 'convert up to the top of the 24% bracket,' without a projection across the years before RMDs begin.
• Ignoring the IRMAA two-year lookback, so that a conversion made at 63 or 64 raises Medicare premiums at 65 or 66 with no warning.
• Not asking whether the advisor models the ACA subsidy limit when a conversion happens before Medicare, where a few dollars over the line can remove the entire premium tax credit.
• Never asking who prepares the tax return or how the advisor is paid, and so missing a structural conflict on conversions that lower assets under management.
• Assuming Arizona is the main cost of a conversion. At a flat 2.5% it is usually the smallest piece next to federal tax and Medicare surcharges.