how do i reflect the difference between a vested amount and total amount in an IRA investment

dbvande

i have an account in which the vested amount is less than the total amount. How do I reflect that in my investment totals for net worth calculations

Tom Young

How do you happen to have securities in an IRA that aren't vested?  The typical pattern when investing in an IRA account is you take some money out of your pocket, put it in the IRA, then buy something.  Whatever you bought is unequivocal yours.

If you put some employer stock options in the IRA, how did you value them for keeping track of your contribution?

If this is what you're dealing with then I'd keep the options separate from the stock itself, with unique security names.  There are ways of valuing stock options - I'm pretty sure there are programs based on Black-Scholes that you might use somewhere in the internet - and you could probably periodically change the value of the options based on these programs.  If a particular option expires unused, you write it off.  If the option vests but isn't exercised - e.g., a NQSO - you could price it based on the "spread."  If an option is exercised then you convert that particular security to employer stock.