Personal Finance and Investing

You are probably aware that doing so is a taxable event, BUT....
Once you have paid those taxes, the money in the Roth will never be taxed again.

Ever.


All growth is not taxed and (as you are probably aware) withdrawals (Distributions, more properly) aren't taxed either.

One thing I learned was that if it is possible to pay the tax liability with other funds, say savings, for instance, then the entire amount - in your case, the $15K, goes into the Roth.

Your FA can easily run a tax analysis for you to show how much the taxes will be. If you have that much in another account, he might suggest using those funds to cover the tax liability (I would if I was still licensed and you were my client).

The Roth has several benefits a traditional IRA does not have. You may already know all this, so I won't bore you. If not, just ask your FA.