Down,

Sorry for your loss, happy for your gain.

The bonds you have are all quality rated bonds. AA range, and some can be sold for a premium. The higher the interest rate and the longer the term, the better and you have some good gains over par for those in the 8% range. You will take a hit for comissions, but if you play well in the sand box, you should be keep it under 1%. You will lose a little more on the bid ask spread as whom ever is buying these wants a good deal right now and in an interest rate increasing period that means downward pressure on bid.

The bonds are laddered as your Father had set up for the purpose of income and to minimize some types of risks that come along with bonds. You need to understand more than the price you can get, you need to understand what risks you will increase if you sell long term or short term bonds. Without knowing each bond, just the companies, it is really hard to advise what would be rational strategy and not knowing what your situation is and how,when why, you need the money - the task is impossible.

My suggestion is - follow the advice given. Sit on the bonds for a couple of months and get a feel for the benefit you have in the income stream. See what you needs are as you think about what to do and how, when, why you want the money. And, can you answer this?! - Why do you want the stocks over the bonds?

Fidelity will give you a lot of support, especially for that sum, but sometimes the support is only as good as the employee you get on the phone. Now, nothing against'em but you may end up with a 22 year old recent college graduate who has never lived through or been in any high inflation/deflation times and who will give you the stock portfolio designed for people your age, maybe they weill even consider your risk tolerance.

If you are hell bent on selling and selling now, OK. You can find out how to maximize some returns by reading along doing a bit of research and viewing value as a trader would. But if you want to maximize your return - personally there is no way I would trust a salesperson from fidelity, vanguard etc.

So, your first assignment would be to find out the current value for all of your bonds. Individually - make a list.

http://finance.yahoo.com/bonds

There are some calculators and you can actually search for the same bonds you have and see what the bid/ask price is. Then find out what your commision would be.

DrTarr