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Money Market cash dividend should be shares not in cash balance

Dennis4@

Each time I get a cash dividend in a money market account it goes into my cash balance. It actually is a reinvestment that should be in share balance. What I have noticed is after downloading in the accept download section, the ones that go into a cash balance under action it says Div. The ones that go into share balance properly under action says ReDiv (not exactly sure what it says here because I entered them already, I believe that is correct). Is there a way to change to reinvest dividends on the money market accounts as each time I need to edit the download to reinvest dividend or make another transaction to buy the shares from the cash balance? TIA

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Boatnmaniac

Dennis4@ said:

> @Boatnmaniac said:
> Out of curiosity, is your broker Fidelity? If not, who is the broker?
> If so, is the MMF in question your Core Account?

Yes and yes !!

Fidelity downloads Core Account value as cash value, not as MMF value. They (and some other brokerages) do this intentionally. They actually have a long FAQ article regarding this: https://www.fidelity.com/customer-service/faqs-exporting-account-information and then click on the first FAQ under Quicken titled "How do I suppress Redemption and Purchase from Core transactions seen in Quicken?"

I think they do it this way because my Fidelity Team frequently refers to "Core Account" and "Cash" interchangeably. I used to do what you are doing by editing, adding and/or redoing Core Account transactions so my MMF shares matched what was shown in my Fidelity.com account but it was a lot of work and more often than not I would end up having to deal with Placeholders and making adjustment to the Cash Balance. So about 4 years ago or so I decided to stop bucking what Fidelity was doing and started thinking like Fidelity does: Core Account = Cash and Cash = Core Account.

Once I started doing that and made some adjustments to my accounts in Quicken and to my account settings in Fidelity.com I've had very few account issues related to the Core Accounts and Cash Balance. But it does require a change in thought process because if you do what I've done, you will no longer have any Core Account shares in your account(s) in Quicken...it will all be held in the Cash Balance.

I've posted the process used and now use in dealing with this in my and my wife's Fidelity accounts in several Community threads. It takes a little work up front but once completed it works pretty well and the issue goes away. Here is one of those threads you might want to review: Downloads from Fidelity do not included activity into the settlement fund.

There are many other posts about this going back years and most of them suggest doing the same thing. If you want to read other threads on this subject do a search in this forum for Fidelity Core.

All comments

Boatnmaniac

Out of curiosity, is your broker Fidelity? If not, who is the broker?

If so, is the MMF in question your Core Account?

Chris_QPW

Well you aren't alone, my wife's 401K account is with Merrill Lynch always codes as Bought even when it is the monthly dividend reinvestment. I have to change it to Reinvest. This coding of the transaction is done by the financial institution and only they can change it.

This is just one example of why you can't just accept what is sent for investment accounts.

Frankx

Hi @Dennis4@

I have a similar situation where the download of a reinvest transaction comes in as a cash deposit when it should be a reinvested dividend. Since it is a monthly entry, I have setup an "Income reminder" for a set estimated amount in Quicken each month and I enter that transaction a day or two before the month end. Then, when the transaction downloads I adjust the amount to the actual amount in the download, enter it and then it matches with the download.

Frankx

Dennis4@

> @Boatnmaniac said:
> Out of curiosity, is your broker Fidelity? If not, who is the broker?
> If so, is the MMF in question your Core Account?

Yes and yes !!

Dennis4@

> @Chris_QPW said:
> Well you aren't alone, my wife's 401K account is with Merrill Lynch always codes as Bought even when it is the monthly dividend reinvestment. I have to change it to Reinvest. This coding of the transaction is done by the financial institution and only they can change it.
>
> This is just one example of why you can't just accept what is sent for investment accounts.

I did look all over Quicken to change something, assumed it is from financial institution. One more reason I do not like Fidelity. I have been slowly moving out.

Dennis4@

> @Frankx said:
> Hi @Dennis4@
>
> I have a similar situation where the download of a reinvest transaction comes in as a cash deposit when it should be a reinvested dividend. Since it is a monthly entry, I have setup an "Income reminder" for a set estimated amount in Quicken each month and I enter that transaction a day or two before the month end. Then, when the transaction downloads I adjust the amount to the actual amount in the download, enter it and then it matches with the download.
>
> Frankx

When I download I view first, then I accept, then edit that transaction to reinvest, add the amount of shares equal to the $ and save The share price automatically goes to $1. It is a work around. I was hoping to change something in Quicken.

Frankx

HI again @Dennis4,

I understand. The problem is that this is being caused by Fidelity (in the way they incorrectly code the downloaded transaction) - not by Quicken. So the Quicken user is left with the task of correcting the incorrect code.

Frankx

Boatnmaniac

Dennis4@ said:

> @Boatnmaniac said:
> Out of curiosity, is your broker Fidelity? If not, who is the broker?
> If so, is the MMF in question your Core Account?

Yes and yes !!

There are many other posts about this going back years and most of them suggest doing the same thing. If you want to read other threads on this subject do a search in this forum for Fidelity Core.

Chris_QPW

I misread this. I thought that this was a security that was paying a dividend that was reinvested in that security, and as such was wrong to go to the "core mutual fund".

If in fact this dividend is "cash" then in fact as @Boatnmaniac points out there isn't really any problem here. Some financial institutions like Fidelity don't send the transactions to move the cash in and out of "cash mutual fund". Others like Vanguard do. As long as you don't fight it, it works just fine. Cash in Fidelity, mutual fund in Vanguard.

BTW have it moving in an out of a mutual fund can have some disadvantages. Vanguard doesn't do that transfer until the transaction settles. So you get your buy that will result in a negative cash balance until it settles and then the "cash mutual fund" is sold that balances it out.

NotACPA

I, actually, in my several Fidelity accounts, just keep the cash as Cash. No monkeying around with MMF buys and sells.

Keeps life much simpler. Especially since for both my wife and I, the Fidelity MMF is our primary checking account.

Boatnmaniac

NotACPA said:

I, actually, in my several Fidelity accounts, just keep the cash as Cash. No monkeying around with MMF buys and sells.
Keeps life much simpler. Especially since for both my wife and I, the Fidelity MMF is our primary checking account.

That's what my post is pretty much about (at least regarding the Core Account MMF). The other post thread referenced there goes into some very specific details about what to do to help ensure that most if not all future downloads do not include those Core Account MMF transactions, what to do to get the Holdings and Cash Balance in Quicken aligned with that strategy and in agreement with Fidelity downloaded data and what to do if/when Fidelity does download new MMF transactions. Doing the work up front on that makes it very simple and mostly trouble-free going forward.

Chris_QPW

I have had both Fidelity and Vanguard and once I realized how to handle it, both worked fine. Vanguard was slightly more of a problem because of the delaying of transfers in and out of the "cash mutual fund".

Now J.P. Morgan Chase this is quite a ride since they have a "fake security" for both the queuing of the amount of the trade and another for "dollars" that they move the money in and out of. On the plus side they have the OFX server tided directly into their backend system. I will get transactions downloading into Quicken before they even show up on their website!