in fact, it's called a roth recharacterization. you can undo it. if you do a roth conversion, you have until october 15th of the year after the conversion to change your mind for any reason at all. maybe the investment didn't do well. so what? you can change your mind. it's like getting to bet on a horse after the race is over. who wouldn't sign up for that? and even after that, after certain time limitations, if you want to reconvert, you can do that. also, everyone qualifies for a roth conversion now. there used to be income limitations on who can convert. everyone that has an eligible rollover distribution from a 401(k) or an ira is eligible to convert. some people ask me, "isn't that limitation just gone for 2010?" no. that income limitation is repealed permanently. so everyone qualifies all the way out-- or until congress meets again but supposedly right now, all the way out. i think there's two groups that a roth conversion is best for, if i had to pick two groups it's a real slam dunk for, for estate planning and for young people. for estate

it's called a roth recharacterization. let's say you converted your ira to a roth ira in 2009. if you convert in 2009, you have until october 15, 2010, to change your mind for any reason you want. it's like getting to bet on a horse after the race is over. and during your lifetime, you never have to take the money out, not like a traditional ira or a 401(k) where you have to start pulling money out after 70 1/2. real wealth builds fastest when it's not eroded by the government. but i said there were two ways. the second way is life insurance. life insurance is the single biggest benefit in the tax code, the ability to put small amounts of money in and have many times, many multiples of that, come out tax-free forever. switching from taxable accounts to tax-free accounts. life insurance is incredible. most people don't use it, but they should, because it's a wealth-building tool. it's the way to move money from forever taxed to never taxed. you might say, "why would the government even allow that?" it actually sounds too good to be true. why would they allow it? you might say, "