It's been fun talkin' witcha about this, rg123. This thread has made me "curiouser and curiouser" -- like Alice said in Wonderland.
I think maybe we have been talking about apples and oranges mostly, but that's OK, it sent me on a search -- which I should have done in the first place -- but that's OK, too. Where's the fun in that. Can't let the internet do all our thinking for us.
(Btw, the link I am providing is to a legitimate source. I vet the internet.)
I like learning about this stuff, and I always let it be known that I was not in the money business.
I just found an article that lays it all out. It clearly says that an in-kind transfer resets the basis. I am pleasantly surprised. I might be seeing possibilities in a reset basis -- only after talking to a tax professional, of course. And I would never have even thought about it had it not been for these TOTV screen-side chats.
Read on.
Here it is:
How to Take In-Kind Distributions from Your Tradition... - Ticker Tape
Boomer