401(k) Financial Institution Changed

Unknown

The company I work for has recently changed from a 401(k) provider that doesn't allow downloaded transactions.  So I had them setup as a retirement account and I would input quarterly statements.  Now we have switched to a new provider that does allow this data to be downloaded.  I have tried several things:

1. Created new Account w/ new provider and linked everything  (worked great), then I attempted to set the balances on my old account to (0).  This showed that I still had shares of funds with no balances. (Unsuccessful)
2. Close the old account and create a new.  This worked, however when I look at my investment history the value of the old account was gone  (Unsuccessful)
3. Take my existing account, edit account details and link it online.  This forced me to create new each time (Unsuccessful).

Please advise the best way to handle this situation.

Jim_Harman

In option 2, simply closing the old account is definitely the wrong thing to do, because as you have seen all the history will be lost. You can hide it in the account bar if you don't want to see it any more, but you will want to transfer the assets from the old account to the new and get the balance down to zero.

I think you will find that option 3 is the best way to go, but please explain what you mean by "create new each time". Assuming that your manually entered share balances and any cash in the account were correct at the time of the conversion, you should be able to start downloading transactions and everything should reconcile.

You will probably have to delete the downloaded transactions that deal with transfers from the old provider, since the securities are already in your account.

As always, make sure you have a recent backup before making any of these changes.

Unknown

When I open the existing account, go to the online services and attempt to connect it.  It asks me for an account name which then forces me to setup a brand new account.

splasher

QuickenPete said:

When I open the existing account, go to the online services and attempt to connect it.  It asks me for an account name which then forces me to setup a brand new account.

Are you not offered the opportunity to change the "add" to "link" at that point?

How about a screenshot of that screen?

Unknown

QuickenPete said:

When I open the existing account, go to the online services and attempt to connect it.  It asks me for an account name which then forces me to setup a brand new account.

No I am not, it just states "Please name this account:"

Unknown

QuickenPete said:

When I open the existing account, go to the online services and attempt to connect it.  It asks me for an account name which then forces me to setup a brand new account.

I am having the exact same issue. Has anyone found a way forward?

Quicken Premier 2016Release R 11 (25.1.11.5)

Thanks

Unknown

QuickenPete said:

When I open the existing account, go to the online services and attempt to connect it.  It asks me for an account name which then forces me to setup a brand new account.

I am also having the same problem. The 401K managing company (Mercer) changed to Transamerica, but still operates under the name of Mercer, with a different website address. The same thing happens to me with option #3 above in that Quicken wants me to start up a new account. This is a bad programming issue, I think. However, the fact that the account is still technically Mercer, but Quicken's default info for Mercer is restricted to the original web address is also a problem. If I could enter the exact correct web address overriding the one within Quicken, I could get this solved.

Jim_Harman

OK, it looks like if your financial institution changes, Quicken really wants you to create a new account. In that case here are the steps to follow:

-- Make a backup of your data file in case something goes wrong
-- Deactivate online services for the old account
-- Turn off automatic accepting of downloaded investment transactions it it is enabled
-- Create a new, empty account without online services for the time being
-- Use Assets Transferred between Accounts and Cash transferred between accounts transactions to transfer all the assets from the old account to the new
-- Set up online services for the new account
-- Delete any downloaded transactions that involve adding the shares that were transferred from the old account.

If you need more detailed instructions please let us know.

Jim_Harman

And the website address is tied to the name of the FI that you provide. For Mercer, it is ibenefitcenter.mercerhrs.com. If you are supposed to use a different address, you may have to contact them to see if and how they connect to Quicken.