The week leading up to your retirement is busy with farewells. But you look forward to finally being able to settle back, catch your breath and enjoy a life of leisure.

Only one complication may slow you down:

You’re 90 years old.

That might be an exaggeration, but a growing number of Americans do expect to work well beyond traditional retirement age. One-third of working Americans say they’ll have to work beyond age 65, according to a recent poll by the Gallup organization.

Individual retirement accounts can play a major role in determining when you retire and how comfortable you’ll be.

This is an opportune time to take stock of your IRAs in the context of overall investment planning and to review changes for the 2010 tax year that make conversions from traditional tax-deferred IRAs to taxable Roth IRAs attractive to a greater number of taxpayers.

“I like a holistic, big-picture approach in which clients look at not only their IRA but their company 401(k) account to evaluate all retirement investments together,” said Rick Fingerman, certified financial planner (CFP) and president of Financial planning Solutions inc..

Some of Fingerman’s clients put all their IRA money in bonds because the stock choices are better in their company 401(k). All that money is headed to your retirement. Despite recent global turmoil, take a long-term, diversified investment view in a retirement account by including international stocks and bonds, he advised.

investors have their IRAs scattered among a number of financial firms. consider consolidation for a number of reasons.

“I find many clients have multiple IRAs and possibly old 401(k) accounts that are dormant,” said Fingerman, pointing out that many custodian firms charge an annual IRA fee that can add up with multiple accounts in different places.

From a recordkeeping standpoint, combining dormant accounts can make sense, he said.

A boom in IRA activity in 2010, with volume up three and four times its usual level, centers on a new opportunity in Roth IRAs.

“There’s been quite a pickup in Roth IRA conversions, with changes in rules giving us a chance to be more proactive with resources and with guidance about retirement savings,” said Stephen Cless, CFP and vice president with Charles Schwab.

Starting with the 2010 tax year, the opportunity to convert a traditional tax-deferred IRA to a Roth taxable IRA is available to all taxpayers regardless of income. Previously, a conversion was only available to those who had a modified adjusted gross income of $100,000 or less.

You can either report all of the taxes on your 2010 return or take advantage of a one-time opportunity to also spread the payment out over the 2011 and 2012 tax years.

Be sure that you are fully aware of the taxes you will owe, since the amount in your traditional IRA and your tax bracket determine how much that will be. It’s also important to go over your personal situation to see if spreading the tax out would be beneficial or not in your particular case.

In terms of making new contributions, both types of IRAs have a 2010 contribution limit of $5,000 or, if you will be 50 or older by yearend, you can contribute an extra $1,000. Check income limits on contributions that are applicable to your own personal situation.

Reach Andrew Leckey at andrewinv@aol.com.

Take stock of IRAs to plan retirement – TwinCities.com