We have capital losses, enough actually to enable a transfer of at least one IRA to a Roth IRA with several thousand left over to offset any capital gains in our taxable brokerage account. Think this will fly? I will also inquire with the IRS directly but thought someone here might know. This is my first time here. Thanks in advance for any information.

You can only use $3000 of capital losses to offset ordinary income, which is what a conversion would be.

thanks james, I guess I should have known this but was hoping to find some good use for this 60k loss.