Dear Mr. Berko:

My mom passed away and left my wife and me a portfolio of 19 stocks, three bonds, three mutual funds and six preferred stocks, altogether worth $305,000. She used the dividends from this portfolio, which last year were $11,800, to pay her real estate taxes, insurance and a few other things. She got all these stocks and bonds from her brother when he died in 1991, who got them from his wife, who died a couple of years before that.

Neither my wife nor I know anything about stocks. We’re both teachers, and our experience with investing in our 403(b) plan does not give us confidence in stocks and bonds. So we have decided to sell everything and put the money in certificates of deposit so we can’t lose money.

My problem is that I cannot find any record of what these investments cost her. I know that every once in a while she would get a call from her broker, who would recommend something to her. So I called the brokerage firm, but they are no longer in business. The broker was my uncle’s broker, too.

The certificates all have the name of a transfer agent on the front. Can the agents tell me the price she paid for the stocks, or will I have to write each company for the price she paid? What should I do?

S.S., Port Charlotte, Fla.

Dear S.S.:

Do not despair. I’m sorry that the performance of your 403(b) plan does not please you. Most 403(b)s have underperformed the market, because the participants select the wrong mutual funds, and quite often the funds available in the plan are managed by morons and cretins. The performance of most 403(b)s is disappointing because so many of these plans use variable annuities with obscenely high annual fees that would make the Mafia green with envy.

Please spend a few bucks and counsel with a certified public accountant. Though I’m 99.8 percent certain of the following answer, tax law is not my area of expertise. If it were, I’d be sitting in a plush corner office overlooking the ocean, leeching enormous fees by providing tax advice to wealthy patrons. Because I sense some caveats in your question that you have not shared with me, a tax specialist is the most qualified person to give you a bankable answer.

The current tax law tells us that your basis for the portfolio is either the price of all securities on the date of your mother’s passing or the value of all the securities six months after her death. In almost all circumstances, it doesn’t make a dash of difference what your mother originally paid for those shares. This is what your accountant will probably tell you.

This system is called the “step-up” basis, because your basis on these securities is stepped up to its value on the date of your mother’s death. As you no doubt know, our tax laws are unnecessarily and purposefully complex, thanks to myriad lawyers and CPAs who otherwise would have a difficult time finding gainful employment. You can check Internal Revenue Service publications 550 and 551, which are available on the IRS Web site (www.irs.gov). It won’t be easy reading, because those laws were written by bloody lawyers.

You can do what you wish with that portfolio, but I would suggest that you consider counseling with an investment adviser before liquidating those investments. Your mother owned them for a long time, and they seemed to have served her well over the years. It’s quite possible that they might serve you well, too. You can get 5 percent to 5.75 percent on CDs, and they are unquestionably guaranteed. However, even a banker will tell you that a portfolio of highly regarded stocks and bonds can give you an infinitely better return than CDs.

And I will tell you that a long-term investment in dividend-paying stocks, especially those that have a 15- to 20-year record of annually increasing dividends, will easily outperform a CD. Meanwhile, I’ve sent you a copy of an article I’ve written on how to find a broker. Read it.

Please address your financial questions to Malcolm Berko, P.O. Box 1416, Boca Raton, Fla. 33429 or e-mail him at malber@adelphia.net.

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