Quicken choosing wrong mutual fund for dividend reinvestments

Alex100

I have several brokerage accounts that I sync with Quicken (web connect). Each of these accounts holds a collection of Vanguard index funds. Sometime last year, many of these funds changed names and ticker symbols in my accounts. Example: the "Vanguard 500 Index Fund" used to be VFINX, and it was then replaced with "Vanguard 500 Index Admiral" with a ticker of VFIAX. (this is just 1 example, many other Vanguard funds that I hold also changed to "admiral" shares)
The problem is, Quicken seems to be incorrectly handling subsequent dividend reinvestments by adding them to the register using the OLD ticker symbol. So now I have a bunch of fractional share transactions into the old security.

So... my question to theexperts is how do I best fix this? I can manually edit each incorrect transaction in the register and make those dividend reinvestments go to the correct ticker symbol. But, this is slow and painstaking - and it probably doesn't fix the root problem, so I'll likely have to keep doing this every time a new dividend reinvestment occurs. Is there a better way? Can I edit the actual security itself in Quicken and forcibly change the ticker symbol? (not sure what that will do to historical transactions though..)

Thanks for any guidance!

q_lurker

@BK is on the right track regarding CUSIPs.  CUSIPs get entered into the Quicken file when you match the Online security with one of your Quicken securities.  When that matching gets done, the CUSIP reported by the financial institution for their security gets applied to the Quicken security you match it to.

There may be a few cases where this match takes place without user confirmation, but most of the time, Quicken will tell you the FI is showing a new security (not currently matched) and offer to 1) create a new Quicken security, or 2a) match to an existing Quicken security where the program offers likely match, or 2b) match to a Quicken security as the user identifies the match.  

It is when that match has occurred that the "Matched with online security" box gets checked.  It is the only way to get that box checked.  But the user can uncheck that box as needed allowing the match to be redone.  The Compare to Portfolio cite you mentioned will allow that rematch to take place.  

UNCHECK the Matched to online security for the investor class shares (and the Admiral shares if you choose to).  That is what you need to do to fix your problem!  I have little doubt that you currently have the FI's Admiral shares matched to your Quicken Investor class shares.

webtramper

It may be possible to delete the current affected account connection with Vanguard, and then, recreate the connection to download both current and historical transactions. However, firstly, make a backup of the Quicken file so you don't lose any of your previous efforts.

q_lurker

The root of the problem is is your understanding that "many of these funds changed names and ticker symbols in my accounts".  The funds did not change names or tickers.  You older (investor class) funds were exchanged for the more cost efficient Admiral class funds. 

What should have taken place was a removal of the old funds and the addition of the new funds with those new holdings carrying forward the original funds basis and acquisition dates.  I do not rely on or trust the financial institutions (FI) to get that conversion right.  The recommended way is Quicken's Mutual Fund Conversion or Corporate Acquisition transactions (Enter transactions button) possibly with some after-the-fact corrections on top of that.   

Tangential with that you need to have the security as being reported by the FI properly matched to the parallel security in Quicken.  From your description, they appear to be misaligned. 

You may be able to correct that by unchecking the box "Matched with online security" for both the Investor class security and the Admiral class security.  Also make sure each fund in Quicken has the correct ticker associated with it.  From there with your next download (and maybe sooner) you'll get the opportunity to correct the association such that what the FI reports as an Admiral class fund you get matched to the proper Admiral class fund.     

Before undertaking that set of corrections, make sure you hava a good backup -- just in case.

Alex100

> @q_lurker said:
> The root of the problem is is your understanding that "many of these funds changed names and ticker symbols in my accounts".  The funds did not change names or tickers.  You older (investor class) funds were exchanged for the more cost efficient Admiral class funds. 
>
Yep, that's correct and I realize I did a lousy job of explaining myself. Here's what I can determine by looking at the transaction history: I must have (at some point in the past) attempted to handle the conversion because for each of these Vanguard funds I see a "Removed" transaction for the old investor class ticker shares, and then a bunch of "Added" transactions for the new admiral shares - lot for lot with the correct price, date ,etc. The problem is, ever since that "conversion", the subsequent dividend reinvestments have been going to the investor class shares instead of the admiral shares.

If I login to my FI website and look at some of these dividend reinvestment transactions, they have a description like this: "VANGUARD MID CAP INDEX ADMIRALVANGUARD REINVEST PRICE $210.33". Now, you would think the actual piece of data that Quicken downloads would also include the ticker symbol... but maybe it doesn't and Quicken has to parse that text to lookup the right security. That's about the only explanation I can think of for why it would pick the wrong security.

Looking at the "security detail view" in Quicken, the ticker symbols for each of these securities IS correct. (both admiral shares and investor shares) However, on some of the admiral share securities, the "Matched with online security" checkbox is NOT checked, and it's greyed-out. Hmmm. In other admiral share securities, it IS checked. Not sure what that might mean (if anything), but I'll do some more looking.

Thanks for the help, I'm going to manually fix the remaining incorrect transactions and see what happens during the next sync/updates.

Alex100

Some additional info: If I look at the "security list" in Quicken (Tools --> Security list), many of the admiral share funds (vanguard) do NOT have a CUSIP. I don't think this is editable, so I can only assume that the FI is not sending this, and maybe this is - at least partially - responsible for the mismatching problem.

Also, if I go into Tools --> Online Center --> Holdings tab, it shows a list of securities that the FI is reporting. If I click the "Compare to portofolio" button, it better illustrates the mismatch. Example: It shows that the FI is reporting that I have 50 shares of Vanguard 500 Index INV (ticker VFINX), but my account in Quicken is reflecting 0 shares. Conversely, it then shows in the next line that my FI is reporting that I have 0 shares of Vanguard 500 Index Fund Admiral shares (ticker VFIAX) yet my account in Quicken is reflecting that I have 50 shares of that fund. So basically it seems like Quicken is confused because the FI is reporting the wrong funds... (investor shares vs admiral shares) so even if I manually correct the individual transactions in Quicken, it doesn't truly solve the underlying problem which is that it thinks there's a mismatch based on what the FI is sending.

Are there any nuclear options worth considering? What if I just delete the investor-share Vanguard funds from Quicken? Or going a step further, if I were to delete the account completely, and then setup a new account and sync with the FI, maybe everything would be reported correctly? I'm not opposed to deleting these accounts and starting over, though I'm not sure what that will do to things like money transfers with other accounts in Quicken...

BK

RE: Some additional info: If I look at the "security list" in Quicken (Tools --> Security list), many of the admiral share funds (vanguard) do NOT have a CUSIP. I don't think this is editable, so I can only assume that the FI is not sending this, and maybe this is - at least partially - responsible for the mismatching problem.

Just FYI on CUSIP, ALL of my investments do have the CUSIP (funds, stocks, etc. with Vanguard including Admiral same as yours and with other FIs).  And it is not editable.  I recall that I fixed lack of one by editing that security and re-entering the correct ticker, allowing Quicken to find the proper match and then did an 'Update Transactions' from the FI.  Then the CUSIP appeared.

q_lurker

@BK is on the right track regarding CUSIPs.  CUSIPs get entered into the Quicken file when you match the Online security with one of your Quicken securities.  When that matching gets done, the CUSIP reported by the financial institution for their security gets applied to the Quicken security you match it to.

There may be a few cases where this match takes place without user confirmation, but most of the time, Quicken will tell you the FI is showing a new security (not currently matched) and offer to 1) create a new Quicken security, or 2a) match to an existing Quicken security where the program offers likely match, or 2b) match to a Quicken security as the user identifies the match.  

It is when that match has occurred that the "Matched with online security" box gets checked.  It is the only way to get that box checked.  But the user can uncheck that box as needed allowing the match to be redone.  The Compare to Portfolio cite you mentioned will allow that rematch to take place.  

UNCHECK the Matched to online security for the investor class shares (and the Admiral shares if you choose to).  That is what you need to do to fix your problem!  I have little doubt that you currently have the FI's Admiral shares matched to your Quicken Investor class shares.

Alex100

Thanks everyone! I unmatched both the admiral and investor shares, and re-sync'd to redo the match. So far I think this has resolved the issue. (I did need to manually adjust existing transactions which was expected) It's entirely possible that this was user-error months ago and I inadvertently clicked an incorrect match. Hopefully lesson learned.