Thanks for this response. Looking back at previous statements, it is clear that Wells Fargo isn't selling and repurchasing the same shares, so there isn't a wash sale involved, nor does this have to do with the primary account holder's recent death. The annual tax statements show these same kinds of "phantom sales" going back for at least the past 10 years. This activity appears to be happening entirely within the various UITs involved—Guggenheim, Invesco, First Trust, etc., but those companies seem to report only the proceeds side of each transaction back to WF, hence the "unknown basis" and "unknown term" entries on the 1099-Bs.
I've only experienced this once in my own portfolio, with stock spinoffs from one of my dividend reinvestment plans. That particular DRiP went through five different transfer agents prior to the spinoffs, so my 1099-B captured all the covered short and long-term transactions under the current transfer agent, but the history from prior companies apparently never carried forward. To determine that basis, I had to dig through my statements dating back to 1997 and calculate the buy and sale figures for every reinvested dividend prior to 2011, using the spinoff percentage ratios from the companies' Attachment to Form 8937.
At least WF isn't putting me through that kind of pain, but since they are managing every investment from start to finish in my sister's account, it seems the burden should be on them to do the research and provide their clients with all the numbers needed to complete their tax returns. I agree that the only reasonable way to record this in TT is to treat it as a wash sale with a purchase cost identical to the proceeds amount. When WF sells the UIT shares upon maturity later this year, they will use the adjusted basis to calculate capital gain, so this intermediate "non-sale" will have zero effect on the outcome.
I guess I was just hoping that someone would see this question and say, "oh yeah, I see this with UITs all the time and this is exactly the right way to handle it."
