Updated July 28, 2026. Quick answer: The 10-year rule changed who this decision is about. A traditional IRA left to a child is now emptied inside ten years — usually their highest earning decade. Converting at your rate can beat leaving them to empty it at theirs.
The comparison that actually matters
Under the old stretch rules a child could draw an inherited IRA over their lifetime, so the tax was spread thin and the conversion question was mostly about your own retirement. The 10-year rule ended that. The account now empties in a decade that usually lands squarely in their forties and fifties.
| Convert now at your rate | Leave it, they empty at theirs |
|---|---|
| You pay, at a rate you can see | They pay, at a rate you are guessing at |
| They inherit a Roth — still 10 years, but tax-free | Ten years of ordinary income on top of peak salary |
| Reduces your taxable estate by the tax paid | Estate stays larger, heirs’ bill larger |
When it works and when it does not
It works when your marginal rate is lower than your heirs’ will be — retired, pre-Social-Security, pre-RMD, in a low-tax state. It fails when the reverse is true, or when your heirs are in a low bracket, or when the money is going to charity anyway (a charity pays nothing either way, so converting first simply wastes the tax).
State tax cuts both ways and is often decisive: converting while resident in a no-tax state, when your heirs live in a high-tax one, is the strongest version of this trade. See how each state taxes a conversion — 24 of 51 land where the common shortcut is wrong.
What it does not fix
An inherited Roth is still subject to the 10-year emptying rule. What changes is that the distributions are generally tax-free, so the compressed timeline stops mattering. Converting removes the tax, not the deadline.
Sources
SECURE Act (2019); SECURE 2.0 (2022); final RMD regulations published 19 July 2024; IRC §401(a)(9); IRC §1014 (basis of property acquired from a decedent); IRC §664 (charitable remainder trusts). Cross-checked July 2026 against professional analyses from Kitces, Grant Thornton, Ascensus, Charles Schwab and Kiplinger. Indexed figures and state-specific rules are flagged rather than asserted.
This states what the cited authority says. It is not tax or legal advice, and beneficiary planning turns on family facts and state law that no page can see.