This article appears as part of Casey Weade's Weekend Reading for Retirees series. Every Friday, Casey highlights four hand-picked articles on trending retirement topics and delivers them straight to your email inbox. Get on the list here.

In that light, here are four of the six instances when converting is worth your consideration:

📌 If you could be in a higher tax bracket in retirement: Leverage today’s low tax rate environment and pay taxes now (or before you begin taking RMDs), when you’re in a lower tax bracket.

📌 If your traditional IRA is not needed for retirement expenses: Instead of waiting to withdraw from a traditional IRA later in retirement (and paying higher taxes), convert to a Roth IRA before you need the funds, and again, reap today’s low tax rates.

📌 Before Medicare eligibility and taking Social Security: If your income could reach or exceed certain income thresholds, you can utilize a Roth IRA to help avoid extra Medicare premium charges, a Medicare surtax or higher taxes on Social Security benefits.

📌 When the market is down: You can convert shares at a lower cost with your potential future gain being tax-free. Your future tax rate versus your current tax rate isn’t the only consideration for you to make when evaluating a Roth conversion.