re: Back door ROTH taxable event question

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Well you still get potentially decades of tax free growth. That could well more than offset the up front tax cost of the conversion.

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True, but getting taxed twice as much as you should sucks. And for someone who’s already had IRAs for 25 years it might not make sense.

Rolling funds into an existing employer sponsored plan is probably the best bet before starting to backdoor Roth.

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What is the benefit to this?

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It gives you the opportunity to do a Backdoor Roth without getting taxed on money you’ve already paid taxes on.

If you roll your traditional Ira balance into an employer sponsored pre-tax retirement plan, you won’t have any pre-tax dollars that trigger pro rata when you backdoor Roth. (Except for the little bit of earnings you get on the $7,000 before you roll it to Roth, but the taxable amount will be negligible.)

ETA: An alternative, if your company plan allows it, is a “mega backdoor Roth” in service distribution, where you contribute after-tax dollars to your retirement plan, and roll those contributions over to a Roth IRA. You can contribute a lot more than you would doing a backdoor Roth. However, if you already had earnings on after tax contributions you’ve made in the past, pro rata would apply to that.

How would I go about finding a CFP that I can pay by the hour of consultation not affiliated with places like Merrill, etc.? How would I find out about their reputation?