@DianeW777 Thank you for the response and you kind words.
Can you confirm the following for me, which I have explained several times in this thread, but I don't think anyone has specifically clarified: Is it correct that these funds are considered to be inherited by my mother, even though they were held in a trust account, for which both my mother and father were equally beneficiaries (and co-trustees)? Unlike my father's IRA, which my mother clearly inherited, she always owned the funds in the trust account as much as my father.
This is why I remain a bit uncertain and confused. I understand that if it was a taxable account that my father owned in his name alone and that my mother inherited it, then the responses I have gotten in this thread would clearly apply, and "inherited" would be the appropriate entry for date acquired. But this was an account that my mother and father owned together equally. Yes , for the purpose of stepping up the cost basis, as far as I understand, the law/IRS treats it as if my mother inherited the funds from my father. But in another sense she did not really inherit anything. She always owned these funds.
This is also why it's confusing to me that the brokerage put my father's date of death as the date acquired on the 1099-B. Perhaps with a trust account this is the more appropriate information? And of course, I hesitate to enter something different on form 8949 than what is reflected on the 1099-B from the brokerage .
In any case, do you understand why this situation seems to me to be not exactly typical and why I'm uncertain if the general advise about inherited funds (which has been provided in this thread) applies to this specific situation?
Thank you.
