Hi seattlecyclone. Before my FIL died, he had 1.2 mil which he divided up 600,000 in his trust and 600,000 in my MIL trust. As far as I know, that 1/2 was in his name, but his wife could have use of it, but I don't think she ever had to. The problem is my husband's brother was in charge of all of this and he would not give statements to his brother (my husband) or sister over the years. He ran the trust department of the bank that the money was in before he retired. I think he was all on the up and up, but who knows? We talked to the manager of the trust dept now, to fill out papers and even she said she thought it was odd that he never sent us any statements!
I think that money just sat there and the dividends were reinvested. They are mostly blue chip stocks and some mutual funds. It looks pretty balanced to me. There probably was some buying and selling, but not a whole lot. I will probably make a few changes, but all in all it seems to be invested fairly well.
I guess I will call the trust dept manager and ask if the total cost line would be the stock basis. They do charge a 0.35% fee for providing basically a piece of paper every quarter, but this is my husbands money and he wants to leave it in there. I have enough other money that I manage that I will not try to change his mind.
Thanks, Miss Prim