Mutual Fund Conversion in Quicken Mac Deluxe 2019

Unknown

Vanguard recently lowered the minimum investment for its Admiral Shares mutual funds and gave investors the option to convert from the equivalent Investor Shares funds. I did this, and then recorded it in Quicken (Deluxe Mac v. 5.8.2) as a sale of the old security and then a buy of the new one. However, I later realized this messes up the cost basis calculations. While Vanguard maintained the cost basis of the old security, recording in quicken as sell-then-buy does not. Because the conversion was not a taxable event, it is important that I record accurate cost basis info.

When I searched for how to record a mutual fund conversion in Quicken, it appears the Windows version has a simple "Mutual Fund Conversion" option when entering a new transaction, but Mac does not. How can I record my conversion?

Unknown

Probably the easiest way is just to rename the Investor Shares funds to Admiral Shares fund.

Unknown

BruceG said:

Probably the easiest way is just to rename the Investor Shares funds to Admiral Shares fund.

It's more than just a rename, because the stock symbol changed (e.g., shares of the now-defunct VTSMX were converted to VTSAX). If I just went back and changed all the VTSMX transactions to VTSAX as if I never held the former, that's less than satisfactory because the two funds had different share prices, dividends, etc., and so the historical information would all be wrong. 

Concordman

BruceG said:

Probably the easiest way is just to rename the Investor Shares funds to Admiral Shares fund.

Jason , open the security detail window locate the original security, then you can edit the name & the symbol to reflect the admiral shares.

The original MF data would still be reflected in the account register.

Unknown

BruceG said:

Probably the easiest way is just to rename the Investor Shares funds to Admiral Shares fund.

I believe that's what I suggested in my earlier comment which Jason said was unsatisfactory. What you might want to try (use a copy of your Quicken Data) is creating a duplicate enter in your Transactions for the Admiral Shares on the date of the original purchase of the Investor Shares. Then just Remove Shares for the original Investor Shares. If you have multiple purchases, you would have to do this for each purchase of the original Investor Shares.

Unknown

BruceG said:

Probably the easiest way is just to rename the Investor Shares funds to Admiral Shares fund.

Thanks. That definitely is a clunky workaround to make sure that both current and historical data are accurate considering that the Windows version has a "convert" function, but it did work. I recorded the outgoing Investor Shares as a "Remove Shares" transaction (not "Sell") on the date of the conversion. Then I recorded each Admiral Shares lot as an "Add Shares" transaction (not "Buy"), which let me set the transaction date to the date of the conversion and input a separate "date acquired" for each lot so that the historical data is all there.

steve parker

Jason said:

Probably the easiest way is just to rename the Investor Shares funds to Admiral Shares fund.

Thanks. That definitely is a clunky workaround to make sure that both current and historical data are accurate considering that the Windows version has a "convert" function, but it did work. I recorded the outgoing Investor Shares as a "Remove Shares" transaction (not "Sell") on the date of the conversion. Then I recorded each Admiral Shares lot as an "Add Shares" transaction (not "Buy"), which let me set the transaction date to the date of the conversion and input a separate "date acquired" for each lot so that the historical data is all there.

After reading this thread decided not to try the convert option or the rename idea.  Took your suggestion instead, which got it done.  Fortunately I've only had the account for a couple of years; so only about 15 transactions total.  Glad Vanguard converted to Admiral, but what a pain in the butt this could have been!