Inherited Stocks
Hi Terry, I’ve inherited 579 Shares of Allstate Stock and 121.50 shares of Discover (Now Capital One) stock with my mother’s passing. I’m stuck on which of these options I should go with:
1. Have the stocks transferred to my own Fidelity Brokerage Account?
2. Receive a check for the stocks and then deposit in my Fidelity Brokerage Account and reinvest?
Thank you for taking my question.
Terry Says
If you just recently inherited the stock, the easiest thing from a tax point of view is to sell them immediately — so there is no capital gains tax, since your “cost basis” is the value at the time of inheritance.
Then you can decide what you want to do with the money. This is not passing judgment on these shares — you can even repurchase them if that’s what you want. But it will greatly simplify your tax picture when you eventually sell anything you buy with this money.
