Retirement Account Strategy: Roth Conversions, Backdoor Roths, Health Savings Accounts, and Required Distributions

Choose between traditional and Roth with real numbers, execute a backdoor or mega backdoor Roth cleanly, and time conversions and required distributions to pay the least tax over your lifetime.

Who it is for: Savers at every stage, and retirees with large pre-tax balances.
Runtime: 60 minutes

Pre-order: this course is in development and appears in your portal the day it is released. Buy 5 or more and every course is 30% off.

See the full track See the full curriculum

Instant download after payment. Nothing is withheld for a later purchase.

What you receive

Roth Conversion Ladder Calculator with Medicare premium flags (Excel)
Backdoor Roth step-by-step checklist with a Form 8606 guide
Mega Backdoor plan eligibility checklist
Required Minimum Distribution Calculator and charitable distribution tracker
Where the Next Dollar Goes: account priority decision tree
The narrated lesson. 60 minutes, cued to the deck, with chapter markers by lesson. Emailed to you the day it publishes, at no extra cost.

What the course covers

01The accounts and what each one is for, including 529 plans and the new children's accounts7 min
02Traditional versus Roth: the math and the bracket bet6 min
03The backdoor Roth: the nondeductible contribution, the form, and the pro-rata trap7 min
04The mega backdoor Roth: after-tax contributions and the plan features you need5 min
05Roth conversions: when, how much, the five-year rules, and the Medicare premium cliffs9 min
06Required minimum distributions: the ages, the penalty, and the charitable shortcut6 min
07The health savings account as a stealth retirement account, with the new eligibility rules5 min
08Worked example: a 55-year-old couple with 1.5 million dollars pre-tax, a conversion ladder versus none9 min
09Tricks of the trade and traps: converting in a down market, paying the tax from outside, and the form everyone forgets6 min

How it fits: Requires 7.1. Pairs with 4.5 and 3.4.

The standard every course holds

A narrated lesson of 45 to 60 minutes, produced as audio
A designed slide deck you download and keep
A computational workbook that runs the actual legal tests
A toolkit of checklists and protocols
A legal authority appendix carrying the two-pass vetting protocol

Written for a diligent reader with no legal education. Professionally narrated using a studio voice model of Brian T. Boyd. The course is recorded instruction, not a live consultation.

Where this course sits

Track 7: Tax Reduction and Strategy

This course is one step in a track built around a single outcome. See the full build order and the other courses that get you there.

Back to this track

Educational material from the private client curriculum of Brian T. Boyd. This is legal education for a general audience, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created by purchasing, viewing, or using it. Tax outcomes depend on your facts and your state.