What Is Best Way to Retain Cost Basis When Moving Shares

Scott M

What is the best way to move shares of stock from one account to another and retain the cost basis information on a specific lot basis? I tested using the "Transfer Shares Between Accounts" traansaction and used Lot Identification. It did seem to move each lot except the transaction date became the "move date" versus the actual purchase date. And since I already had some of the same stock in the receiving account, the newly added lots were not in date order with the existing lots. Would it be better to move the purchase transactions versus transferring the shares?

Jim_Harman

You don't say what version of Quicken you are using.

When you move shares between accounts with QWin 2019, I think you will find that the dates for the tax lots are correct in the receiving account. They are shown if you edit the Add transactions.  The original transaction history is retained in the old account. 

If you want to see the performance for a period that spans the move date, you should include both accounts. 

Scott M

Hi Jim thanks for the note however I do not follow what you are saying. I do have QWin2019. What is your thought on moving the transactions (versus moving shares)?

mshiggins

The Add Shares transaction shows the lot acquisition date. You can see it either by editing the transaction or by viewing the lot in the Investing tab's Portfolio view. 

Jim_Harman

Moving the transactions is not a good solution to your problem. For one thing that is not what happened in real life. Also if you move a buy or sell transaction from one account to another, the cash positions in both accounts will be wrong. 

The shares moved between accounts operation is the correct way to do this. 

fordtufff

 

Jim_Harman said:

You don't say what version of Quicken you are using.

When you move shares between accounts with QWin 2019, I think you will find that the dates for the tax lots are correct in the receiving account. They are shown if you edit the Add transactions.  The original transaction history is retained in the old account. 

If you want to see the performance for a period that spans the move date, you should include both accounts. 

The shares moved between accounts operation is the correct way to do this. 

Not the OP, but this worked for me! The original transactions dates were maintained in the holdings list with all the lots in order and any report I generated seemed to be based on the transaction date, not the account transfer date. I too had several stocks that had already been downloaded into the new account before I "moved shares between accounts". After figuring out that was why my share balances were coming up incorrect, I deleted the downloaded shares, and everything is good.

Scott M

Thanks for your input I have spent more time analyzing the results of the "move shares" using specify lots, and here is what I find: the moved lots do show the correct date acquired when you edit them; and the transaction date of the moved lots is the dae moved. However, when I look at the individual lots in the portfolio view and in the "select lots to sell" dialogue box, the moved lots are sorted by date moved versus date acquired. Therefore the moved lots are not in date acquired order with the shares that were purchased in the account. Instead they come after. So in the future when I go to sell shares if I want to do Fifo for example, I must remember to go select the lots individually because the moved lots are not in date acquired order but rather date added. Does that make sense or do you think I am missing something? Thanks again.