What about the new Roth IRA rules?

Many Series 65 and 66 candidates have been sending emails asking if the exam will be testing the new Roth IRA rules for 2010. The most accurate answer is this: nobody knows. Why not? Because nobody ever knows what the Series 65/66 is going to ask. There are companies out there who will give you a definitive answer here, and there are companies like Pass the Test who prefer to tell you the truth--nobody knows. If the test does ask a question requiring you to know the peculiar situation concerning Roth IRAs in 2010, this is what you would need to know:

• Income limits still apply and prevent "high-income" people from making a contribution
  
• The only change is that "high-income" people can do a Roth conversion by paying tax on all the money in their Traditional IRA account and making it a Roth account
  

That's all that's happening this year--if you want to convert a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, you can do that this year regardless of your income level. If you want to add new money to your Roth IRA, you will be prevented from doing so if you reach a certain income level that is one set of numbers for single filers and another for married couples filing jointly. What are those numbers? Your firm has them somewhere, and we do not think those numbers are testable. But, again, nobody really knows for sure what is "testable" and what isn't. That's just the sort of folks we deal with when taking the Series 65/66 exam. They do whatever it takes to flunk about 1/3 of all test takers on any given day. Don't let the wisenheimers put you into that bottom 1/3.