M*: Q&A With Ed Slott: Backdoor Roth IRA Conversions Alive and Well: Text & Video

Ted

FYI: Christine Benz interviews Ed Slott. Eight years after their arrival, backdoor Roth IRAs are alive and well. Joining Christine to discuss the maneuver is IRA expert Ed Slott. He is author of the newly revised "Retirement Decisions Guide."
Regards,
Ted
https://www.morningstar.com/videos/878097/backdoor-roth-ira-conversions-alive-and-well.html

msf

I'd been holding these in my back pocket (meant to post, hadn't gotten around to it):

Ed Slott's column from a month ago:
https://www.fa-mag.com/news/irs-finally-says-back-door-roth-s-are-ok-39697.html

Yale Law and Policy Review, Spring 2017, Slam the Door: Why Congress Should End the Backdoor Roth IRA
https://ylpr.yale.edu/inter_alia/slam-door-why-congress-should-end-backdoor-roth-ira

Congress was aware at the time of the backdoor Roth IRA’s passage that it would not facilitate greater retirement savings, particularly for those households for which increasing savings is most critical. As Brookings Fellow Peter Orszag warned Congress in 2005, “[r]ather than bolstering retirement security among middle- and lower-earners, proposals to increase income and contribution limits would generate significant asset shifting and be of primary benefit to households who are already disproportionately well-prepared for retirement.”[31] Instead, the driving force behind the backdoor Roth IRA was the need to facilitate the extension of capital gains and dividends rate cuts.[32]