Mutual fund investment account "Specify Lots Sold" page has wrong lot information

EMEL

I have discovered in two (so far) mutual fund investment accounts, each one in a separate file, that when I go to sell shares the number of shares in one or more specific lots showing on the Specify Lots Sold page for that sale is very wrong. Both the fund's register and security detail view have the correct lot information but the account overview page under Holdings and the Specify Lots Sold page have the wrong information. The account overview page has the correct current total at the top, but the lot list below includes lots which have been sold and its total does not equal the total at the top.

Checking the Specify Lots Sold pages for past sales, I found that in one account Quicken first restored a lot that I had sold completely in the preceding sale, then kept adding more shares to the lot in each later sale I made, using the original cost per share. In the other file, it did this for three lots I had previously sold completely.

In addition, in one file Quicken is not adding some reinvested dividends listed in the register to either the Specify Lots Sold page or the holdings account overview page.

I validated one of the files and nothing changed.

I called Quicken's technical support, and they could not help. Other users may also have this problem and not know they do. To discover it as soon as it arises, a user has to notice that a previously closed lot is still showing on the Specify Lots Sold page for the current sale. If sales in the account are infrequent, remembering that the lot was closed is not something anyone is likely to do.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Frankx

Hi @EMEL

You've raised an interesting question about the sale of security lots and the related responsibilities thereof. 

I suspect that many Quicken users would take measures to ensure that the transactions they actually effect in their brokerage accounts. would  properly align to the transactions that they make in their Quicken accounts.  It is surprising that you have found that now, after some time period has passed, the transactions that you made in your actual brokerage account, now do not agree with your Quicken account data.  I am also not completely understanding this comment "In addition, in one file Quicken is not adding some reinvested dividends listed in the register to either the Specify Lots Sold page or the holdings account overview page."

Perhaps if you supply some additional data we may be able to help you sort all this out. 

Frankx

EMEL

I enter all my transaction data manually and always reconcile my register balances with the fund statement' s balances. All my registers and security detail views for the funds are correct. However, on the Specify Lots Page for at least two funds after I sold and closed a reinvested dividend lot, Quicken not only reinstated it for the next or a later sale but kept adding shares to it so that each sale of that fund's shares thereafter showed more shares in the same lot. The same thing happened in the funds' security detail view.

In one of the funds, some recent reinvested dividends entered in the register are not showing up as lots on either the Specify Lots Page or in the security detail view.

Frankx

Hi again @EMEL,

Thanks for the additional information - it is helpful.

Unfortunately, it is up to you, as the Quicken user, to maintain accurate records in Quicken of securities lots, including when you enter and/or accept downloaded transactions into Quicken.  It is impossible for us to know what happened with your lots that made them inaccurate, at this time.  If you believe that there is a "time frame in the past" when these lot records were accurate, you could possibly restore your Quicken datafile from a prior period (before "Quicken ... reinstated dividend lot[s]" that apparently caused your Quicken file to be inaccurate).  That restoration could theoretically cause your Quicken datafile to get back to where you believe it should be.

I should note, however, that for most Quicken users that I know the phrase "always reconcile my register balances with the fund statement' s balances"  would not include verification of a securities lots - and as far as I know, there has never been an "automatic" way in Quicken to verify that the lots of securities as they exist in Quicken reflect the users expectations or beliefs about that data.

However, the good news is that your broker (or mutual fund company) clearly has the responsible for keeping accurate records for tax purposes AND reporting that information to the tax authorities, so even if the lots were not correct in Quicken, it will likely not affect how your transactions are reflected on your tax returns.

Let me know if you have any followups.

Frankx

EMEL

The problem with one account started in 2007 (!!), with the other in 2018. All the transactions I entered came from fund statements and the monthly fund and register balances were identical. Reentering the data for the later account is feasible -- unless the software flow continues to operate, in which it would be useless. Relying on the fund's calculations of gains for tax purposes is fine for lots added to the accounts from 2011 on but I would lose the opportunity to pick among pre-2011 lots for sales. One thought I had is to reinstall the program, if there is a way to do it, correct the account which only has the 2018 to date errors and see if that works. If it doesn't work, then I am not the only person having the problem.

Jim_Harman

First, make sure there are no Placeholders in the accounts. Go to Edit > Preferences > Investing Transactions and make sure the Show Hidden transactions box is checked. You must resolve any Placeholders before fixing the lots. 

Then try a File > Validate and repair. That might fix something. If you choose the Rebuild Investing lots option, be sure to back up first. That option may convert any sales to FIFO which is probably not what you want.

Another option would be to change the As of date in a Portfolio view view grouped by account, looking carefully at the lots before and after each sale, and comparing to your broker's data. To see the lots, click on the little plus sign next to each security. When you find a sale that messes up the lots, delete it and try re-entering.

EMEL

No placeholders. Validate and repair did not change anything - it found no errors.

Jim_Harman

OK, now go on to look for the transaction(s) that are causing the problem.

Frankx

Hi again @emeline419

Just wondering - you said "Checking the Specify Lots Sold pages for past sales, I found that in one account Quicken first restored a lot that I had sold completely in the preceding sale..."

Any chance that you rebought that security within a 30 day period - if so you could have triggered the wash sale rule, which could explain that behavior.

Frankx

EMEL

No wash sales...ever

EMEL

I may have solved the problem for the future by reinstalling Quicken, then re-entering the sales in the past couple of years which had the closed lots Quicken kept reviving. However, one account has years of sales made from closed lots which Quicken revived, so correcting them will be a lengthy process.