Updated July 28, 2026. Quick answer: Aid formulas weigh income far more heavily than assets, and a conversion is income. Converting during a year that feeds an aid assessment can reduce aid by more than the tax costs — and retirement accounts themselves are generally not counted as assets.
The asymmetry that decides it
Retirement accounts are generally excluded from the asset side of aid formulas. But a conversion shows up as income, which is assessed at a much higher rate than assets are.
So a conversion converts an invisible asset into visible income — the worst possible direction for a family seeking aid.
Which years count is the whole question, and the answer has changed with aid-formula reform. Confirm the assessment years for your child’s cohort before planning around them — this page deliberately does not state a year offset that has moved more than once.
The sequencing that usually works
Convert before the first assessed year, or after the last one. For a family with a single child that is a manageable gap; with children spaced several years apart it can close the window for the better part of a decade — which is worth knowing before you assume the pre-Social-Security years are freely available.
Sources
IRC §408A (Roth IRAs); IRC §408A(d)(3); IRC §402(c)(11) (inherited plan amounts); IRC §170 (charitable deduction); IRC §172 (net operating losses); SECURE Act (2019) and final RMD regulations published 19 July 2024. Cross-checked July 2026 against professional analyses. Indexed thresholds, aid formulas and state Medicaid rules are described rather than asserted — they change annually and by state.
This states what the cited authority says. It is not tax advice.