Switching an Account Type to Roth IRA

Just Me and Not Someone Else

Currently a tax deferred investment can be switched to an IRA, 529 or 401(k), but not a Roth IRA.  Since a regular and Roth IRA are treated very differently from a tax purposes it would be an excellent enhancement (especially in the Lifetime Planner) to be able to switch an account to a Roth.

Rocket J Squirrel

Currently, the only way to designate an account as Roth is at account creation time, and only when creating a manual, offline account (which can later become online). This is really not at all obvious. @Just Me and Not Someone Else 's idea of being able to designate an existing account as Roth would be a big help.

albo66

Agreed.  I created my IRA account long before Quicken support Roth.  I'd really like to be able to convert them to the correct type of account

Jim_Harman

Yes, this would be a significant improvement. I voted for this some time ago and I still support it.

butlerd12

What is the recommended remedial action in the absence of an easy way to update the account type from Traditional to Roth? Is the best option truly to wait for a button, or is there a manual approach that is not too labor intensive?

Jim_Harman

One approach would be to create a new Roth account in Quicken and transfer the assets to it.

jfclague

Jim_Harman said:

One approach would be to create a new Roth account in Quicken and transfer the assets to it.

How do you create a new account as a Roth acct.?

The only options when creating a new investment acct. are:
-Brokerage
-401k or 403b
-IRA or Keogh Plan
-529 Plan

Rocket J Squirrel

jfclague said:

How do you create a new account as a Roth acct.?

Go through the steps to create the account and you will eventually be prompted for this.

Jim_Harman

Choose IRA or Keogh Plan then
Advanced setup
I want to enter transactions manually
Name the account and follow the directions. 
At the end Quicken shows a dialog that lets you choose the owner - myself or spouse - and the IRA type:
Traditional
Roth
Coverdell
Keogh
SEP or
Simple

Movie Nut

HOW DO I VOTE for this ! This is a great idea,

Chris_QPW

Movie Nut said:

HOW DO I VOTE for this ! This is a great idea,

Click here (at the top of the thread):

Just Me and Not Someone Else

Converting an IRA to a Roth IRA is probably the most useful, but a lot of companies and/or Solo 401(k)s have Roth options as well.  Need to be able to set up Roth 401(k)s also.  

Chris_QPW

I would like to state something that might not be obvious.

This change in account type should be for "mistakes", not an actual conversion.

As in this shouldn't be a "conversion".

When someone says they converted a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA that is a completely different operation than when a person says I created the account as a Traditional IRA and it should have been a Roth IRA.

A conversion implies a lot of tax ramifications, which is beyond what I think this thread is about.  If that was being done, then it would probably be some kind of wizard to help with the conversion/tax ramifications.

Instead "changing the account type" is more about just informing Quicken how to display the data and treat it in parts of Quicken like the Tax Planner and Lifetime planner, and Account intent.

Jim_Harman

To build on @Chris_QPW's comment, if you would like to see Quicken improve handling of Roth conversions and other distributions form tax deferred accounts, please review and vote on this Idea post
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20146150