Through another discussion (
https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/how-to-handle-csc-and-hpe-merger-to-form-dxc) I have now found that FINALLY Quicken seems to have listened to users and fixed the Corporate Spinoff action. Thank you.
For many years, perhaps from its inception, the Corporate Spinoff action in Quicken for Windows has generated backdated RtrnCap and Buy Shares transactions to cover a situation where one company spinoffs off shares of a second company. Those two backdated transactions would be inserted back in time when the lot was originally acquired. The RtrnCap took basis value from the original lot adding cash to the account, then the Buy Shares used that cash to buy shares of the spinoff.
That procedure had the effect of then showing that the user owned shares of the spinoff at a time the spinoff did not exist and the user did not own any shares. Investment performance was altered. Historical net worth was wrong. It became a wholly inaccurate representation.
For years, I have told users not to use the Corporate Spinoff action because of that misrepresentation. I have advised instead that they use Remove Shares and Add Shares transactions dated currently (actual time of spinoff) to accomplish the same net effect without buggering up their prior financial representation.
Now (QW2017 R6; I am not specifically sure when in the 2017 sequence this might have appeared), I find that Quicken has heeded the advice from me and others.
The current (new) sequence does generate currently dated Remove Shares and Add Shares transactions for the non-taxable spinoffs. My first take through this is that they got that part exactly right. They have attempted to clarify the "Cost per ... share" prompts. I would have chosen alternate language like "Fair market value per share immediately after the spin-off" which is also more in line with the attendant help information.
The wizard does still require that the New Company be a really New Company (within your Quicken file). That will be an occasional issue but likely prevents more issues than is causes. Good Choice. The Wizard does create the new security in Quicken for that new company, but no ticker is asked for, nor other "New Security" type questions appear. (The same applied in the old procedure). So, the user will need to go back to edit the security details to add in the ticker and make any other applicable adjustments.
I also note that the action get applied in ALL accounts that currently (time of spinoff) hold that original security. That is quite logical but may take some by surprise.
There may be some other obscure circumstance to work around, but at this point I am exceptionally pleased with this change.
The one problem created: They took the tack of eliminating the "taxable" spinoff option. There had been a check box to select that option and the consequence was that same RtrnCap and Buy Shares transactions would be entered, but they would not be backdated; they would be currently dated (time of spinoff). Because the "Buy" was current, there was no need for a by-lot repetition of Buy transactions. IMO, that particular process was adequate.
Taxable spinoffs are not common and are often individually unique. That makes it tough for Quicken to model. That being said, the basic model is likely still - Cash from original company is used to Buy Shares of new company. The new sahres of the new company do not get treated as acquired when the original shares of the original company were acquired. That "Cash from company" part could come as RtrnCap, Div, Interest (conceivably), or some other MiscInc, or combination. But from that point, I see it definitively as a Buy Shares; not as an Add Shares which the new Quicken form suggests.
As a result of this change, the following article should be edited with respect to the Taxable Spinoff section:
https://www.quicken.com/support/how-do-i-record-corporate-spin-new-securities Thanks, Quicken, Inc. for a significant improvement / bug fix / upgrade / correction / etc. requested by your users.
