Cost basis change due to death?

Rod Rasmussen

Is there any known procedure for changing the cost basis of each security in a portfolio after the death of one spouse? In the past I've seen suggestions to enter in a sell for each position and then enter a buy at the new cost basis but surely Quicken can do better than that....

q_lurker

I would use Remove Shares and Add Shares

Frankx

Hi @Rod Rasmussen

Exactly what would you expect Quicken to do to "do better" about this isolated tax-related issue?  Do you have any specific suggestions on how or what Quicken should do? 

In most cases, this would be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence where that fact variables are so numerous it would be almost impossible to program without significant changes to the type of data collected and maintained within the application for two lifetimes. Do you really expect a personal financial program that on average costs less than $50.00 to track/compute the step-up in tax basis for a once in a lifetime event?

Frankx

Sherlock

The stepped up basis is achieved by entering a Removed and an Added action transaction for the holdings.

NotACPA

AND you only need a single Removed transaction for each security and a single Add (as of the date of death) for each security.

This isn't difficult.

Rocket J Squirrel

Inherited securities are considered long-term holdings for tax purposes. So while the date of the Remove & Add should be date of death, one might want to back-date Date Acquired one year if using Quicken's tax features.