Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

You need a date of death value for a few reasons, one of which is a possible step up in basis. Basis is what she paid for it. The step up precludes the capital gain or gain on sale issue because if it is valued as of the Date of Death and then sold, for example, then there is not gain. You also need to figure out if there is an estate return due but under the current 2011 system, it is unlikely unless she had an estate of over $5M. If she died in 2010, basis issues are different but there is no estate tax due no matter how big the estate.