Recording inherited stocks

datawiz

I inherited some stocks and am puzzling how to best record them. One way would be "Added Shares" which has the benefit of allowing me to designate the cost basis (which is unfortunately thirty years ago rather than the usual recent date of death [long, irrelevant, story]). But I would also like to have the value of the inheritance show on reports separately as "Inheritance Income" so that I will always remember where the bump in Net Worth came from. Is there any way to do both? If I were to first record a payment/deposit, I could show the income source from it and then do a "buy" on the same day, but it doesn't seem that I can then tinker with the cost basis to show the date from thirty years ago. Or if I do "Add Shares" I can tinker with the cost basis but I can't show it as "Inheritance Income."

mshiggins

I would use Add Shares to capture the cost basis and lot date acquired data, plus use a reminder transaction to document the income/net worth increase. 

datawiz

Could you please explain how to do a reminder transaction?

mshiggins

In the investment account’s transaction list (aka account register), click the Enter Transactions button at the upper left of the register. In the Enter Transactions window, scroll through the drop down list of available transaction types. Reminder is one of the transaction types. 

q_lurker

The Shares Added is the 'correct' way to add the securities into your records.  

datawiz said:

...
But I would also like to have the value of the inheritance show on reports separately as "Inheritance Income" so that I will always remember where the bump in Net Worth came from. Is there any way to do both? ...

This is an untried suggestion that might require some other tweaks.

• Enter a Deposit transaction for the market value of the securities added that date of receipt.  Assign the category as "Inheritance Income" or whatever category you choose.  (Could likely also use a MiscInc transaction.)
• Enter an XOut transaction to remove the same amount from that account.  The Transfer Account should be the same account involved.  That self-referencing use of the same account essentially makes the amount disappear.  It gets removed from the account, but doesn't actually go to any other account.

 I think that will provide you with your desired 'Inheritance Income" line and amount.  You might need to tweak some reports with respect to how transfers are handled for the XOut transaction not to appear.  Typically, those tweaks are in the Advance tab of the report customization.