Trust and step up in basis
Today, 08:44 AM
I am soon to become the trustee of a trust set up by my father that has sizable taxable accounts within. Trust is structured such that I (son of decedent) am the trustee of these assets and that I make sure that my mother can live off some of the income of the assets while she is alive. The trust assets are then to be "distributed" to me upon her death (Backgound: mom not listed as the trustee of trust as dad wanted a spendthrift backstop so that she could live comfortably but not compromise long term generational wealth thru overspending). My father was a great saver but always invested with a company that charged enormous fees, large AUM fees, and tried to time the market on his behalf. They also had him buy loaded mutual funds, etc. (typical gouging stuff). The portfolio is a mess...unnecessarily complex with over 75-80 individual stocks, some "unit trusts" within, etc. I am much more of an index fund person and can not stomach paying this company these AUM amounts after my father's death.
2 questions:
1)Anyone have any experience or advice when transferring trust assets held at one brokerage to a different brokerage? In this case it would go from Edward Jones to either Vanguard or Fidelity. I've read that one should try and transfer assets "in kind" to avoid fees at the existing broker and then craft the new portfolio at the new broker. I'm assuming that there might be a few assets that can not be distributed "in kind" (special investments only offered through Edward Jones) and will deal with that as the situation arises.
2)When do assets actually get a "step up" in basis? Is it at the time of death of my father or in the case of this structure that I outlined above at the time the assets are "distributed" to me after my mother's passing (hopefully a few years down the line)? Either way I'd like to escape the current broker ASAP after my father's death (to save on the AUM fees) but the timing of the "step up" would determine when I sold all these old individual stocks and invested instead in a simpler index fund balanced portfolio that I could manage myself.
Thanks for any advice you can offer.