Phil Cannella is a consummate professional when it comes to being a consumer advocate and retirement expert. Too many advisors who practice in the field have no more than a shallow understanding of the products they sell and certainly have little background in both traditional and Roth IRAs. In fact, most financial advisors don’t want to know much about Roth IRAs because it hurts their own bottom line. Most financial advisors get paid based on the value of their accounts. Thus if you convert your IRA holdings to a Roth IRA the dollar value of your account is smaller because you’ve paid taxes on it. What Phil Cannella insists on is looking at whatever options are in the best interest of the consumer rather than in the best interest of the financial advisor.