Converting mutual funds

clejohn

One of my mutual funds converted to a different fund.  Same number of shares and same share price. I enter the information into the "mutual fund conversion" transaction but I'm getting the error message "No shares available for the acquired security".  I don't understand.

Jim_Harman

Questions:

Was it really a 1:1 swap and not 1.00123:1 or something?

Is it a taxable event?

Has the ticker changed?

NotACPA

AND, if you tell us the name of the Funds, we can do some research on our own.

clejohn

it was a 1 for 1 swap of Vanguard Balanced Investor shares ticker VBINX to Vanguard Balanced Admiral shares ticker VBIAX.  The Balanced Investor Shares fund was closed.  Same number and cost per share was transferred.

Jim_Harman

OK, and have you downloaded transactions from Vanguard since this conversion? If so you might have some cleanup to do.

Start by going to Edit > Preferences > Investment transactions and selecting Show hidden transactions 

Jim_Harman

And what version of Quicken are you running? There were problems with the mutual fund conversion prior to the middle of last year which have been fixed in QWin 2019 but maybe not in earlier versions.

clejohn

I am running Quicken Deluxe Version R18.16.  I have downloaded investment updates from Quicken only, I do not download transaction updates from Vanguard directly.  

volvogirl

When my Vanguard funds changed to Admiral if the price was the same I just changed the name and ticker symbol and kept using the same account.  Did all the shares change? 

Jim_Harman

You can probably do as @volvogirl says, but if you already have Added, Removed, or Placeholder (Entry) transactions involving this conversion you will have to clean them up.

If you click on Holdings, what does it show? Just the Investor shares, just the Admirals, or some combination?

clejohn

Just investor shares are shown.  I suppose I could do that workaround to change the name/symbol or just do a sell and buy.  However, it seems that Quicken has the option but it's just not working.  I'd hate to loose track of the history of these accounts by renaming them just to make it work.

Ps56k2

I tend to try and leave things the same, same as @volvogirl - and just change the Stock Symbol and fudge any little numbers - so that my Cost Basis reflects the original purchase, and not the basis from the point of conversion - which to me - is useless for a long term investor

Jim_Harman

I just entered a 1:1 mutual fund conversion in a test account and did not have any problems.

Are you sure that Placeholders are visible and there are no Placeholders in the account that are messing with your share balances?

q_lurker

clejohn said:

... I enter the information into the "mutual fund conversion" transaction but I'm getting the error message "No shares available for the acquired security".  I don't understand.

I am most suspicious that you mis-entered the security names.  Make sure you are a) working in the right account, and b) selecting the real and proper security name from the list.  Be aware of the subtle distinction between the names of the Admiral Shares and the Investor shares.  You might even rename the two funds so that there distinction is more evident. 

The first entry (Existing fund) should be the VBINX holding; the second entry is the "New mutual fund" - VBIAX.  

You'll also want to be sure about the date of the transaction AND that you do not already have an entry on or before that date that has REMOVED those VBINX shares.  Such a Remove transaction might have come through from the Vanguard download through Quicken.  
  

clejohn

Thanks for your help, just renamed the accounts

q_lurker

clejohn said:

Thanks for your help, just renamed the accounts

??? Renamed the "accounts"?  Are you operating with one fund per account?  That would be a very key piece if information.  Or did you mean rename the "security"?

Jim_Harman

One downside of simply renaming a security when you actually had a share class conversion is that it affects all your holdings of that security, in all accounts and both before and after the conversion.

Now that Quicken has fixed the Share Class Conversion macro-transaction, the Average Annual Return columns in the Portfolio views and the Investment Performance report are correct if you include both the old and new share classes in an analysis that spans the conversion date.