No, they are not required to as this bond purchase was before the time of having to report such information. It is no easy task so please do not be so hard on yourself! As was previously suggested to you, you must make a good faith effort in determining cost basis at date of transfer to you - HOWEVER - given that it was inherited, it is required to be reported, but it is a non-taxable item. Therefore entering sales price as cost basis is just what you should do so that the transaction nets out to zero (as your advisor had suggested). For the date, TurboTax system does not accept "various" as a response in that field. Since you know it is a short term sale, just enter any date (truly, this is legit) prior to the date of the sale and that way it will properly be categorized on your Schedule D as a short term sale.
