Asset Allocation Over Time

kuwayamad

For asset allocation investors, it can be useful to review historical portfolio data and see not only how the value of the portfolio has changed over time, but also how the value of each asset class within that portfolio has changed over time.

Quicken reports offer no easy way to summarize asset class values over time, in either tabular or graphical format.

It is easy to review total portfolio value over time by either:
- using the "Account Balances" report, selecting a time interval, and customizing for only Investment accounts; or
- using the "Portfolio Value and Cost Basis" report and selecting a time interval. This second option also allows you to track the values of investments (e.g. stocks, ETFs) within the portfolio over time.

However, neither of these reports allows you to sub-total the investments by asset class.
This would be an easy functionality to add, by adding a third drop-down box "Subtotal by:" to the "Portfolio Value and Cost Basis" report (alongside "Date Range:" and "Interval:") An advantage of this third drop-down would be the ability to subtotal by other portfolio characteristics, e.g. Account, Investing Goal, Security Type.

The only work-around at present is to use the "Portfolio Value and Cost Basis" report, export the spreadsheet data to Excel, and then do one's own subtotaling there.

Rocket J Squirrel

Is Asset Class really what you want? Quicken has a very limited set of asset classes, and the user may not add more or modify the existing list. Security Type and Investing Goal are the more flexible lists.

I find little use for Asset Class because so many of my holdings fall under Asset Mixture that it is not a helpful way to classify them.

And OBTW, this idea currently has zero votes. Even the original poster (that's you) of an idea on this forum must vote for it to add that first vote.

kuwayamad

Hi Rocket, yes, the chronological values of various asset classes within my portfolio is what I want to track. I'd like to see the values of my cash balance, large cap balance, small cap balance, international equities balance, commodities balance etc over time.

Thanks for notifying me about the vote system - I just did so!

Jim_Harman

I think the Investing > Investment Asset Allocation report (maybe you need Premier to get this?) is part of what you are looking for. It is a snapshot at a given time, but you could run multiple reports set to different dates to see your AA history. For funds that hold a mixture of asset classes, it apportions them correctly. I do wish it would show percentages and not just dollars on the subtotal lines.

You could also export the report data to Excel and combine it there.

If you hold balanced or target date funds, this report is much better than what you would get if you subtotaled another report by Asset Class, because as Rocket J. points out, in the Portfolio views at least, that lumps anything that is not 100% one class into "Asset mixture" which is useless.

One limitation of Quicken is that it does not store historical asset allocation data for individual securities, so for example if you have a target date fund that is gradually shifting to more bonds, any analysis you do today will be based on the current AA of the fund, not what it was 5 years ago.

kuwayamad

Hi Jim
Those are all great points.
The Investment Asset Allocation tool is good for getting snapshots of the asset allocation at specific points in time, but if you're trying to get a visual representation of the portfolio's evolution over time (for example, weekly time points over 5 years), it would be too onerous to export data for that many separate time points and graph them out on Excel.
The reason I point out the Portfolio Value and Cost Basis report as a better "starting point" is that its engine is already designed to show evolution of portfolio (and component) value over time; all it would need to do is combine individual investments by their associated asset classes.
I agree with all of the limitations you've described regarding Quicken's ability to decipher mixed-asset funds and evolving funds like target date funds. For better or worse, I personally have chosen to invest only in funds that adhere to a single asset class, so I can be certain of my asset allocation.
I do think the above requested functionality would be useful to many.
Dave

Jim_Harman

If you are ok with a single asset class per security,  I suggest you look at using the investing goal field for the asset classes. You can subtotal the other reports using that. 

kuwayamad

Jim -
This was a great suggestion. I used the Investing Goal field to create some personalized asset classes (e.g. foreign developed, foreign emerging, inflation hedge, etc) and was able to subtotal, as you suggested, in the settings dialog box for the Portfolio Value and Cost Basis report.
I was then able to export to Excel and, with a bit of transformation, was able to generate the graph I was hoping to create.
Thanks for the advice!
d