Setting up existing Fidelity NetBenefits 401k

Katherine Jones

I've been using QW since the 90's. I am using the most recent version at this time (R37.67).

When with a prior employer, I set up a 401k account in QW as Account Type = Checking (yes, I know now this was not appropriate). It is a 401k account with Fidelity NetBenefits. This Q account contains over 300 entries that came from years of 2x month repeating paychecks. These entries end in 2014 when employment stopped. When employment stopped I left the 401k account at Fidelity (no rollover from Fidelity NetBenefits). From an asset perspective, in Q the account shows a balance of let's say $1,000, which represents my contributions and any matching contributions from the employer.

The statements from Fidelity do show various investments (Blue Chip, Vanguard Target 2025, etc) with specific share balances for each, but I have never been interested in tracking the share balances for each investment and this is still the case; I just want to know what the account is worth in total (based on the market).

Let's say that the account at Fidelity is now worth $12,000 and all of it vested and available to me.

I am now making monthly withdrawals -- just had my first one the other day.

MY QUESTIONS
1. How can transfer or otherwise "close" the incorrectly-created-as AccountType=Checking account

2. and then also how can I best set up an account in Q that represents
-- The fact that the account is actually a 401k account with a $12,000 balance at 12/31/2021
-- Does not have any details in Q related to specific investments/securities (Blue Chip, Vanguard Target 2025, etc) or share balances in each investment/security
-- Allows me to download transactions from Fidelity NetBenefits (my monthly withdrawals, which include Federal Income Tax withholdings)
-- Allows me to download from Fidelity NetBenefits or manually enter cash balances


I suspect there is no solution that gives me all my wants, but there must be certain actions that will satisfy most of my needs.

Thank you very much!

Frankx

Hi @Katherine Jones

It shouldn't be difficult to accomplish what you've itemized above. 

I do need one thing clarified regarding he "401k account" that you want to "set up" - you said the account "Does not have any details in Q related to specific investments/securities (Blue Chip, Vanguard Target 2025, etc) or share balances in each investment/security".  Is that a deal breaker?  Would you consider having an account that shows the breakdown of individual investments - but one that you would not have to "maintain it yourself" but rather have it automatically updated?

Frankx

Katherine Jones

Thank you for your time Frankx.

Having investment fund details (Vanguard Target 2025 -- 120.50 shares and Fidelity Growth Co-mingled Pool Class 3 -- 7,543.88 shares) isn't going to be a deal breaker provided I can fully set up the online pulls of the various transactions. And I'm not sure if this is relevant but each monthly withdrawal will result in a "sale" of shares from every one of the 6 funds associated with the Fidelity 401k account AND I was hoping to just set up in QW a memorized monthly transaction for each monthly withdrawal ($X gross, $Y for federal withholdings, and then $Z for net amount deposited into my checking account).

I will tell you that setting up the automatic updates (what I call an online pull) with investment accounts is a royal pain and over the years I have tried to leverage this feature with 3 different companies but each time I end up undo-ing the setup because the downloaded transactions are wrong, duplicated etc. The latest heartburn is that I may want to download recent banking or investment transactions for one investment firm (say Fidelity) but NOT others (not Vanguard and not Schwab) -- and somehow transactions for all 3 are pulled down to Quicken. BTW, if there is a way to perform a "pull" for just one investment account and no others, having that information would definitely be of value.

Frankx

Hi again @Katherine Jones

So, the good news is that you CAN limit the accounts that are "download" accounts (or "online pull" accounts in your parlance).  So, if you have accounts at various financial institutions, you could download all the accounts from just one of those financial institutions AND, if you have multiple accounts at that one financial institution, you can also limit the download to only one account.  I cannot explain why you had the difficulty you describe above with Fidelity, Vanguard and Schwab, but there is a way "to perform a "pull" for just one investment account and no others".

And I do understand that each "monthly withdrawal" will involve multiple transactions, including sales transactions in a number of funds, as well as the payment amount (withdrawal) to you.  One thing that i am a little unsure of is how the "federal withholding" is being handled.  Above, is seems like you are indicating that the fund company is withholding (and I assume remitting) that, which is unusual.  Is that what will be happening, or will you be making the federal tax payments through quarterly estimated tax payments that you will make yourself?

Frankx

Katherine Jones

I've asked Fidelity to withhold (and remit to the Federal government) federal income. I don't believe this is all that unusual. Depending on the type of account and purpose of the withdrawal, some banking/investment firms are required to withhold a flat 20%. I have my reasons for setting it up this way :-)

So for the short answer, how can I do a "pull" for a specific QW investment account and not have that pull include transactions for other accounts with the same investment institution or accounts with other investment institutions?

Jim_Harman

We are getting a little off topic here.

To return to the original question, one option you might consider is using the Simple investing mode, rather than the traditional Complete mode. This is a relatively new option where Quicken just tracks the securities held and the account balance. Instead of the detailed transaction list, you see a simplified dashboard. With this mode, you might not be able to track any tax withheld from your distributions.

Frankx

Hi @Katherine Jones

Thanks for the information on the "withholding question" - I just wanted to make sure that I had an understanding of how that was going to work.

You asked "So for the short answer, how can I do a "pull" for a specific QW investment account and not have that pull include transactions for other accounts with the same investment institution or accounts with other investment institutions?"  The answer is that you can limit both the "investment institutions" as well as the "investment accounts" that are "downloaded" (to use the Quicken term) or "pull[ed]" (to your term) into your Quicken datafile.  The choice is completely up to you, although I expect that many Quicken users are not aware of that fact.

You only need to make sure that you activate the specific account (or accounts) that you want to be "connected" in your Quicken datafile.

Let me know if you have any additional questions/concerns.

Frankx

Katherine Jones

Jim Harman - yes, I did get off topic. I did find references to this Simple Investing function but was not able to find any How To information on the topic. My concern would be that I need to implement this for just one investment account, not all.

While tinkering, after doing a backup I created a new account via Tools > Add Account > Connected (also tried Offline Account > 401k and then after the account was created I turned on the "pulls" and at no point did it ask me whether I wanted Simple or Detailed tracking.

IF I can enable this Simple Investing for just one QW Investing account then I'd like more information on the How To.

Thank you.

Katherine Jones

Frankx,

I think what's key here is that, as I previously thought, I have to activate and deactivate specific accounts depending on what I'm looking to do. As an example, I bought and quickly sold some stock using funds at one institution/account and wanted to do the "pull" just for that account to get the 2 transactions into the register. I wasn't ready to deal with any pulled updates into other institutions/accounts.

I think what I was hoping for is the ability to kick off a "pull" for just the account I have open in front of me (for which I have enabled the "pull"), or kick off a "pull" for ALL accounts for which I have enabled the "pull".

If you can confirm that my understanding is correct, I can go ahead and close this thread as Answered.

Thank you again!

Frankx

Hi again @Katherine Jones,

I can confirm that you Do have the capability to "turn on" and then "turn off" the downloading capability of an account at any time.  So if you only want to download transactions only for a specific period of time (which is what I think you are saying above) that is possible.  To do that you would need to "enable" downloading" and then "disable" downloading for the account after you've gotten the data you want/need.  Or, because you always have the ability to either "accept" or "reject" any and all downloaded transactions, you could enable downloading for an account and then download transactions whenever you want, and simply decide which transactions you want to "Accept" and/or "Not accept" (effectively delete) those you don't want to record.

In your case, which I believe is one where you want to have very discrete control over what is downloaded, I would suggest that you only enable downloading specifically for accounts where you will want to accept most transactions (or where most of the downloaded transactions will be ones you'll accept for convenience or accuracy issues) and avoid downloading transactions for accounts where there is no significant benefit, or where you want to avoid the chance that the outcomes from downloading would not be worthwhile.

Hope this helps.

Frankx

Katherine Jones

OK, I have learned several things by tinkering and by opening my eyes.... My perceptions were wrong on a couple things.

I see now that *can* do a "pull" for just one account. The disconnect for me was that after doing a "pull" for just Account A, the One Step Update Summary screen showed not only those details but also the most recent details from Institution A and Institution C. I was erroneously interpreting the details for Institutions B and C as being done just done a moment ago. I also now see there is a checkbox which results in only seeing the most recent "pull" activity.

Also, I can in fact enable Simple Investment for any one account by opening the account I want it turned on for, and under Gear > Investment Preferences > Investment transactions I can Enable Simple Investing.

Per a prior Discussion thread, Boatnmaniac noted about this Simple Investing tracking ..."IMO it's perhaps best suited for tax-deferred and tax exempt accounts (such as retirement, medical and education accounts where cap gains/losses and investment expenses have no tax implications) and for people who perhaps use Quicken mostly to manage spending and budgeting and have little interest in using it to track and review investment accounts transactions details." which is exactly where I am at with this particular 401k account.

That said, call me old-fashioned but I like the idea of a Register. I plan to deactivate transaction downloads for my new Fidelity 401k account, manually enter my monthly withdrawals, and use the Update Cash Balance feature at the end of each month so that my Accounts list that is displayed on the left panel has a good approximation of the Fidelity 401k account's balance.

I have another (related) question but will start a new thread on that.

Frankx

@Katherine Jones

Okay, however keep in mind that the "Simple Investing" approach will not have an investment register, so you will not be able to see any transactions (including your withdrawals, etc.) if you use that approach.

Frankx