OK, that makes sense.
So, it looks like it will be a hassle to do the conversion. Should we just skip it and just get traditional Roth IRAs, then deduct the contribution on next year's taxes? How does one figure out which would be the best option - just doing the conversion and taking the pro-rata hit? Or just sticking with traditional IRA and taking the deduction and paying the taxes later. If it makes any difference, the balance in my husband's existing traditional IRA with TIAA is very small -- $1,362.99. It a very small part of his investments w/ TIAA. The bogleheads article makes mention of converting it to a 401(K), but we don't have one, as far as I know, so that option is out.
However, I do not fully understand this process. If we convert the newly purchased traditional IRA to a Roth IRA at Vanguard, this process will involve visiting the Vanguard website or calling a rep and moving the funds around. It has nothing at all to do with TIAA. Does this mean that we have to go into TIAA and do a similar transaction? Or are we just going to be taxed as if we had done that when in fact nothing was moved?