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February 1, 2009
By Tom Lauricella
Wall Street Journal / Yahoo Finance

With retirement savings in shambles, more investors are weighing the merits of converting traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs.

Yes, some people can benefit -- but the move isn't foolproof. Here's what to consider.

Tax strategies are a means of making the best out of recent financial losses. In October, Encore addressed a few ideas, such as harvesting losses on securities in taxable accounts that can be used to offset investment gains.

Another idea was to temporarily switch money back from a Roth individual retirement account created last year to a traditional retirement account -- a step known as recharacterization -- in order to lower a tax bill.

Encore has heard from a number of readers wondering whether it's a good time to take the opposite tack and take some or all of the money in a depleted traditional IRA and convert to a Roth account. The answer, as with many issues related to tax strategies, is: It depends.

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