@ras5028 wrote:
Does the IRS just keep this money when a taxpayer dies?
Unfortunately, that is essentially the way it works; unused capital losses are lost when a taxpayer dies (property owned by the decedent, and included in the gross estate, typically is stepped up to its fair market value on the date of death).
If you can generate capital gains from any other investments, you can use your capital losses to offset the gains (and then the extra $3000 which, by the way, has not been adjusted for inflation in the recent past).
