Good going on losing the adviser for your taxable account! As you get more experience with investing, IMO, you will see that the adviser usually does not add much value to your stash. John Bogle, Burt Malkiel, William Bernstein, and Warren Buffett also think that too!
I think you should
study the Bogleheads' website to learn more of the basics to get you started. The site is very clear and reasonable.
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads®_investing_start-up_kit
First, you need to determine your asset allocation (%stocks/%bonds) is for
your overall portfolio (all of your investments including IRAs, Roths, 401k s, and taxable accounts). You mentioned 40/60, which is risk averse. Asset Allocations (AA) are personal preferences on the benefits of risk versus rewards. Vanguard (and probably Fidelity) have online questionnaires that can help you figure out your AA preference.
You need to study some more and then apply your AA to the
overall portfolio (the set of all your investments-IRAs, Roth, 401k s, taxable). So, for example, you could have your taxable account with the Total Stock Market Index only. Your IRAs might hold REiTS and some bond funds; your 401k might hold Total International Index and some Value Index. Bogleheads has a number of simple AA mixes. A simple portfolio mix, per Bogleheads, might look like this:
With Fidelity, for example, you could construct a three-fund portfolio using:
Fidelity Spartan Total Market Index Fund (FSTMX)
Fidelity Spartan Global ex U.S. Index Fund (FSGDX)
Fidelity Spartan U. S. Bond Index Fund (FBIDX)
Naturally,
the bond fund would go in a tax advantaged fund, like an IRA or 401k.
Personally, none of the listed bond funds you list from your dad's account have much appeal.
Your capital gains basis (or initial point) is the date that you inherited your father's taxable account. A short term capital gain or loss occurs when you sell the mutual fund(s) before a calendar year elapses for more or less than the basis; similarly, if a calendar year elapses after you inherited the account, then a long term capital gain or loss may occur when you sell the equities. This link explains how capital gains, dividends, and qualified dividends are taxed:
http://taxes.about.com/od/capitalgains/a/CapitalGainsTax_4.htm Selling a fund triggers the capital gains tax possibility, not taking the money in cash. So, if you sold fund A, you may have a capital gain or loss on A even if you did not put the $ in your checking account. Thus, a taxable fund should have a Do Not Disturb sign on it in your head. Similarly, if the fund you choose sells a lot of stocks over the year, the turnover (turnover ratio) triggers capital gains tax possibilities. So a low turnover rate fund is very good for a taxable account, like the Total Stock Market Index or a Total International Index. Further, Bogleheads recommends that income generating funds (taxable bonds, dividend stocks, REiTs, etc.)
not be placed in a taxable account as that means more taxes for you.