Roth Conversions Could Move Money Through These Retirement Stocks
Retirement assets rose 7.9% in the second quarter to $51.2 trillion, per the Investment Company Institute: IRAs $19.9 trillion, defined contribution plans $15.0 trillion, 401(k)s alone $10.8 trillion. M2, for scale: $23.3 trillion in August. Some of it is Roth money, already taxed. Most is not.
"If you were to go to buy a house, and you go meet with a realtor, you meet with the mortgage broker, and they say, okay, we're going to sell you this house, we're going to give you a 30-year mortgage. But the only thing that we're not going to tell you is the interest rate of that mortgage. And that all the interest is due at the end of the mortgage, would you have signed that mortgage? Absolutely not," said Ockenden, founder of ThriveRight Financial in The Woodlands, Texas. "You know, welcome to your 401(k)."
The trade planners are making
"How much of your money can you cash out at 22% or cash out at 24% and never have to pay taxes again? That's that Roth conversion stuff," Ockenden said. "We can literally, depending upon the size of somebody's account, save, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes and lifetime taxes by doing strategic, like partial Roth conversions, some tax harvesting stuff."
The bet is that rates rise. "Taxes aren't going to be lower," she said. "We're in a suppressed tax environment right now." Federal debt passed $40 trillion in August. Today's brackets were made permanent in July 2025. "Trump made our tax cuts permanent, but what does permanent mean in politics until the next guy gets in office?"
Heirs are the other pressure point. Most non-spouse beneficiaries must empty an inherited IRA within 10 years, on top of their own paychecks. "Do you want your hard-earned money to be passed on to your kids or to be passed on to Uncle Sam?" Ockenden said.
The catch: a conversion is a tax bill today against a future rate nobody can guarantee, and a large one can lift a retiree's bracket or Medicare premiums.
Why the money stays on the platform
A conversion moves money from one account type to another, usually at the same custodian. The assets don't leave. What changes is the planning work around them, and that is increasingly billed as an advisory fee.
Charles Schwab (SCHW) : total client assets $13.41 trillion at Aug. 31, up 19% on the year; core net new assets $64.8 billion, an August record; 5.9 million workplace plan participant accounts. The stock is down about 3% this year.
LPL Financial (LPLA) , the biggest home for independent advisors: total client assets $2.60 trillion at end-August, advisory assets $1.58 trillion, up 21% on the year, organic net new assets $13.5 billion in the month. Shares are down about 8% year to date.
Robinhood (HOOD) : retirement assets under custody around $35 billion in the second quarter, up 82%, across 2.15 million accounts, with a 3% IRA match for Gold subscribers. Average balance $16,000. The stock is roughly flat on the year.
The wirehouses: Morgan Stanley (MS) pulled in $148.1 billion of wealth net new assets in the second quarter, and its wealth and investment management arms crossed $10 trillion in client assets. Shares are up about 7% this year. Merrill client balances at Bank of America (BAC) were $4.1 trillion.
"With me being independent advisor, I have full... I can work with Schwab, I can work with Fidelity, I can work with LPL," Ockenden said. Fidelity is private.
Where the 401(k) money sits
- Target-date funds: T. Rowe Price (TROW) , $631 billion at Aug. 31; BlackRock (BLK) , $770 billion LifePath platform
- Tax-deferred annuities: record $464.1 billion U.S. sales in 2025, per LIMRA; Jackson Financial (JXN) , record $2.3 billion RILA sales in Q2
- Private: Fidelity, Vanguard
"People are used to having their investments diversified, but how diversified are you?" Ockenden said. "So we really stress tax diversification quite a bit."
Stock moves approximate, as of Oct. 5, 2026. ThriveRight Financial and Kinetic Investment Management, Inc. are separate entities. Investment advisory services are offered through Kinetic Investment Management, Inc., a registered investment adviser; insurance products are offered through ThriveRight Financial. This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment or tax advice.