@chanpion13 - remember when you die, all your investments are 'stepped up' to market value based on the price of each security on the date of death. So there is no value to the loss carry forward at that point - there are no capital gains to be had as all the gains have been 'absolved' by the step-up.
Let's say the week before you die, you sell a number of securities and that has a $50k gain, so there is no capitgal gains tax to be paid on your final tax return, since the $50k gain is offset by the $50k loss carryforward.
But let's say, the week before you die, you DON't sell these securities! And on the day you die (you die in the morning) your executor sells those same securities at that day's closing price. There still won't be any capital gain to be paid because the cost basis on all the trades executoed by the Executor carry a cost basis equal to the market value of each security (due to the 'step up'). *
the loss carry forward loses it value upon death - because of the 'step up'.
*I simplified this to make the point; the actual rules to determine the cost basis upon step-up are a little more detailed that what I used in the example
