Tax & accounting
Ian Bryzek
CPA guidance for tax questions after a death
Ian Bryzek helps executors, trustees, surviving spouses, and beneficiaries organize the tax side of an estate.
His guides cover basis, returns, estate tax records, gifts, trusts, investments, retirement accounts, business interests, multistate issues, and the paperwork that makes those questions answerable.
How Ian can help
- Organize basis and property-sale records
- Sort out final, estate, and trust return questions
- Track income, expenses, distributions, and beneficiary tax documents
When CPA guidance may be useful
A short, organized conversation can be useful before a property sale, distribution, or tax filing creates avoidable confusion.
- A family is gathering records after a death
- An inherited home, rental, account, or investment may be sold or retained
- An estate or trust received income or made distributions
Common situations
High-traffic starting points. Each links into a deeper guide.
Step-up in basis
What a new starting number may mean for inherited assets.
Selling an inherited home
Records to organize before and after closing.
No date-of-death appraisal
When value support still belongs in the tax file.
Surviving spouse
Filing and records after a spouse dies.
Estate and trust returns
Which returns may be in play, depending on the facts.
Inherited rental property
Basis, rent, and later sale questions.
Multiple beneficiaries
Shared property and tax records among heirs.
Missing records
How to reconstruct without inventing numbers.
Inherited retirement account
Custodian records and fact-specific timing questions.
Estate tax and Form 706
Organize valuation, ownership, and filing records when an estate-tax return may be part of the picture.
Executor tax checklist
A practical list of tax and record tasks executors often need to track.
Inherited brokerage accounts
Statements, basis support, and post-death dividends when investments transfer after death.
Tax and accounting guides
19 topic areas for the tax, basis, records, fiduciary, and reporting questions that show up after a death. Start with a common situation or open a category — the profile does not list every guide.
Tax basis
Inherited-asset basis, ownership timing, and the records that support a starting number.
Tax returns
Final, estate, and trust return questions after a death.
Inherited asset sales
What to organize before and after selling inherited assets.
Estate and trust accounting
Tax and accounting records for income, expenses, and distributions.
Inherited real estate
Tax and records questions when a home, rental, or land is inherited.
Surviving spouse
Tax and records issues after a spouse dies.
Beneficiaries
Practical tax questions for people who receive inherited assets.
Records
What to find, keep, and reconstruct for the tax file.
Retirement accounts
Inherited IRAs, workplace plans, and the tax records that follow a death.
Business interests
Tax records and reporting questions when a business interest remains after an owner dies.
Estate tax and Form 706
Form 706, portability, valuation records, and estate-tax documentation after a death—without inventing current thresholds.
Lifetime gifts and prior transfers
Deed changes, prior Form 709 records, gifted assets, and reconstructing gift history after a death.
Trust taxation
Post-death trust EINs, income, distributions, K-1s, fees, sales, and termination records.
Executor tax duties
Executor tax checklists, EINs, notices, reimbursements, and timing problems on the CPA side of administration.
Inherited investments
Brokerage accounts, securities, funds, bonds, crypto, and post-death investment tax documents.
Insurance, pensions, and benefits
Life insurance, pensions, employer benefits, and related tax records after a death.
California and multistate tax
California property-tax, residency, and multistate records kept separate from federal income-tax basis.
International and cross-border
Foreign accounts, assets, and heirs—conservative records guidance with heavy review flags.
Special tax situations
Debts, settlements, royalties, discoveries, and other unusual tax-record situations after a death.
What to have ready
- Death certificate and key dates
- Prior tax returns and tax notices
- Trust, will, estate, and distribution records
- Property, brokerage, income, expense, and closing records that apply
Working with the rest of the team
Tax questions often depend on records from the estate, trust, property file, and financial accounts.
Ian works with the other Core 4 professionals when valuation, legal authority, or planning questions sit outside the CPA role.
- James Valdez — appraisal
- Ian Bryzek — CPA / tax
- Estate & probate counsel — profile coming soon
- Planning support — profile coming soon
Ian provides tax and accounting guidance. Tax treatment depends on the facts and applicable law; he does not provide legal advice or determine a property's fair market value.