Custodial to Custodial IRA Transfer by Check

HJR

I transferred an IRA from my credit union to a new IRA at a brokerage firm.  It was initiated by the new firm and my credit union issued a check on 01/12/2022 and sent it to the new brokerage firm who deposited it upon receipt into my new IRA on 1/18/2022.  How do I enter and reflect in Quicken that my credit union withdrew all the funds and closed that account on 1/12 but they were not received and entered in my new Brokerage IRA until 01/18?  Any kind of transfer will reflect the same date in both accounts but that wouldn't be accurate.  

Thanks in advance
  -- Howard

bmciance

You can create a "suspense" account (an asset). Call it something like "Ira transfer". Do the transfer from your Credit Union to this account and the when the check is processed you can transfer it out of this account to the Brokerage Ira. 

BOB139

Quicken can't track different dates for the same transaction. So for e.g. I setup a direct transfer between accounts and it might come out of one account on Friday and arrive at another Monday. Or I could write a check and it gets cashed 3 weeks later. I have learned to live with this. You could create a suspense account but that would just be a clutter IMO.

What I would do is just record the transfer. I can't see any negative impact of that.

bmciance

BOB139 said:

Quicken can't track different dates for the same transaction. So for e.g. I setup a direct transfer between accounts and it might come out of one account on Friday and arrive at another Monday. Or I could write a check and it gets cashed 3 weeks later. I have learned to live with this. You could create a suspense account but that would just be a clutter IMO.

What I would do is just record the transfer. I can't see any negative impact of that.

My recommendation above accomplishes this. The impact, in my case, of not doing this is this:

I am retired and withdraw my monthly income on the 1st of the month from my IRAs.  Unfortunately, this means the money doesn't show up in my bank account until at least the 2nd.  Since I use Quicken to view my cash flows, if I just do the transfer from my IRAs to my bank account on the 1st it looks like I have the money in my bank account already, but I don't.  This is why I use a "suspense" account (borrowed from my Accounting days early in my working career).  In Quicken, I first do the transfer to the suspense account and then a day later transfer it to my checking account.  This way it reflects when the money actually leaves my IRAs and when it actually shows up in my bank account.  This works out better for tracking my cash flows and knowing how much I have on a daily basis to pay bills.