Inherited Stock
  
See: Gifted Equity. Same idea.
Grandpappy died with a million shares of Walmart, for which he paid a dollar a share. He left them all to you. They're trading at $100 a share today. You inherit the shares, but you also inherit the basis. That is, if you ever go to sell them at, say $110 a share, if and/or when they get there, you'll pay tax on a long-term gain of $109, not a gain of $10, i.e., waaaaay more tax than had the tax basis been stamped at the $100 price the day Grandpappy ran his Ferrari into the wall at 180 mph, with Led Zep blaring.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is a Closed-End Fund?1 Views
Finance a la shmoop what is a closed-end fund? well it's a type of mutual fund [Man approaches mutual fund desk]
only like a bank at any convenient time it's closed
like its assets are enclosed in its price closed means that the fund itself
doesn't actively trade assets back and forth inside of it on a daily basis like
the most famous closed-end mutual fund in the world is Berkshire Hathaway [Man pushing pram of a baby with Berkshire Hathaway briefcase for a head]
Warren Buffett's you know other child the successful one it owns 40 or 50 key
assets from Geico to train companies to metal machinery firms in Israel to
boatloads of shares of stocks like coca-cola and Gillette and Wells Fargo
all of those assets are wrapped up in a tidy BRK bow and the stock market values [Stock market values appear]
ticker BRK daily by trading it back and forth among investors so yes the assets
inside of the fund do change but in an analogous mutual fund that is open the
value placed on the shares is at what is called net asset value, that value is
calculated by just adding up the 843 stocks at the mutual fund owns or however
many the number is and then just calculating a value based on the number [Calculation appears]
of share units comprising that open end mutual fund the closed-end fund has no
changes that way it's just investors valuing the whole bucket of investments
in one closed number now if you'll excuse us we have to get back to [Baby crying in a crib with Berkshire Hathaway briefcase for head]
babysitting for Warren Buffett isn't she just an angel
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