The last thing you want to do in mourning is learn about investment laws. Brushing up on some basics now can make this easier later.

If you inherit securities, you’ll need to know the price of the security on the day the person died.  That value is called the cost basis. You need to know this because when you sell the stock, you pay taxes only on the gains above the cost basis. So if the stock price was $100 on the day you inherited it and moves to $150 when you sell, you pay taxes only on $50 per share. In reverse, you can only claim tax loses on declines below $100 per share.