How many of you do a backdoor Roth IRA?
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Every biglaw attorney should do this every year, no questions asked.
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Which is why they obsess with wealth creation via w2 income
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Already did it for 2026
Enthusiast
Same
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I love getting backdoor action! I make sure I do it two or three nights a week
Subject Expert
My firm has mega backdoor Roth, so I definitely do it.
Coach
A15, exactly. You will need to open a Traditional IRA account and a Roth IRA account. Contribute $7500 to the Traditional IRA, then immediately convert to Roth IRA. You can do this on top of contributions made via a 401k.
The reason this is allowed is because the $7500 limit only applies to contributions (i.e. the money being contributed to the Traditional IRA in this example). Conversions (i.e. from Traditional ira to Roth ira) or rollovers (i.e. from a 401k to an IRA) don't count toward this limit
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Wish more firms did mega backdoor Roth 401(k). It’d streamline the process and increase the total amount allowed.
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If your firm has a mega backdoor, you wouldn’t have to use the IRA method.
As a tax attorney, backdoor IRA is a really low risk move and moving ~$7k is not going to be viewed as a large intraacount move. Generally the question of how risk averse you want to be on this comes into play in whether you are comfortable moving the money immediately from your regular IRA to the Roth IRA or want to let it sit in the regular IRA for 24 hrs. I’m extra risk averse so let it sit 24 hrs and that is technically best practices, but don’t actually think its necessary and would be shocked if the IRS (especially with current personnel/budget restraints) ever went after someone for this. Even with the overly conservative approach, I’ve still only ever owed nominal tax (if any) on one day’s growth.
I do a mega backdoor Roth every year, plus a backdoor Roth.
I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t do the backdoor Roth.
I think the people who tend to be obsessed with this kind of thing live very simple lives, for better or worse. I’m sorry but if you’re an associate that is married with kids and you haven’t maxed out ($22,500) your IRA and dropped
~$70K into a backdoor Roth by the end of February and that’s ok.
A13: what do you mean? The caps for the backdoor Roth and mega backdoor Roth are specified above.
What is the timing for this? Do you have to do it all at once or can you contribute throughout the year? I did lump sum last year but trying to buy a house right now and not make any sudden money moves if I can help it (because they'll flag large transfers)
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A lump sum max contribution to traditional IRA and conversion to Roth IRA is easier and gets you more time in the market.
But if you’re really worried about a large intraaccount move being flagged then you could make periodic traditional IRA contributions and just convert each of them as soon as possible along the way. This minimizes the amount of tax you’d owe on growth of those contributions before conversion. All conversions get reported on Form 8606 anyway, so would just aggregate all of that from the year.