"Was the security renamed?" will not go away.

Question

I download transactions from my broker.  I have share of two mutual funds (VGIT and VCIT) that have very long names VANGUARD SCOTTSDALE FDS VANGUARD INTER-TERM TREAS INDEX FD and VANGUARD SCOTTSDALE INTERMEDIATE-TERM CORPORATE BOND INDEXETF. I am constantlhy getting the message "Was the security renamed?" I keep selecting that "This is not a rename / these are not the same securities."; but Q keeps asking the question. How do I convince Q?

Jim_Harman · Answer

A couple of issues here:

Are these actually ETFs and not mutual funds? That is what the ticker symbols would imply.

VGIT and VCIT do not have "Scottsdale" in their names. Are these the actual publicly traded securities, or are they perhaps special funds created for a 401(k)?

Assuming they are the publicly traded ETFs, I think the problem is that Quicken only looks at the first 32(?) characters in the security name for matching and thus they are not unique. You could try backing up your data (just in case) and renaming the securities so that the names are unique in the first 30 or so characters. You could try "Vanguard Inter Term Treas ETF" and "Vanguard Inter Term Corp ETF" for example. The next time you download, you should get the "Was this renamed" message one more time. Select Yes and make sure the downloaded transaction is matched to the correct security in Quicken.

Brice Glende · Answer

I have accounts at Vanguard that (often) get the response: "Was that security renamed?" when downloaded to Quicken. I think the issue is that Quicken doesn't recognize the data Vanguard is sending. I have been able to resolve this in many cases by scrolling through the entire list of securities to find a match. Good luck!