too many IRA's

[Guest maxx]

I have two Roth IRA's. One was a conversion from a traditional IRA. Can I combine these two IRA's into one?

[John Olsen]

Yes. Because the "ordering rules" affect the taxation of distributions from ALL Roth IRAs, there is no longer any practical reason to segregate the "rollover" from the "non-rollover" account.

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John L. Olsen, CLU, ChFC

Olsen Financial Group

St. Louis, MO

314-909-8818

[John G]

Not all custodians are up to speed on the revised rules. Yes, they can be merged. If your custodian says no, ask to speak to the IRA dept or a supervisor. If they still say no, find a better custodian.

If these accounts are with different custodians, work with the receiving custodian to request a direct transfer of funds. You want to avoid having a check given to you in IRA transfers as it limits your future options and may trigger tax issues if you don't get the tranfser done during the grace period. For some folks, there is also the temptation factor of short term using the funds and then running into problems getting the assets redeposited.