Last month, one of my new clients and I called the administrator of her old 401(k) plan to rollover the balance to her IRA account at TD Ameritrade. To her surprise, she had $36,000 in after-tax contributions (not the same as a Roth) with earnings of $70,000 from the after-tax contributions she made many years ago in addition to $700,000 pre-tax contributions and earnings. She was able to request two checks - one for the $36,000 to a new Roth IRA account (a Roth conversion that is tax-free because there is no taxation on otherwise after-tax funds!) and one for the $770,000 to a traditional IRA account (which does not incur an income tax assessment by virtue of being a rollover). The end result – now she has $770,000 of all pre-tax funds in an IRA, $36,000 in a Roth IRA, and her tax cost this year is zero!