Fidelity NetBenefits transaction download is all "Unidentified Security" (edit)
Answers
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SIGNIFICANT UPDATE: I reached out and connected directly with both the CEO and VP, Customer Service @ Quicken. I even spoke on the phone with Quicken's VP, Customer Service for about 15 minutes last Friday, 10/6/2023. He said that the problem is definitely that Fidelity NetBenefits made some sort of change in how they were encoding their TXN's, the result being that security information that Quicken needs within a certain field within the downloaded information is no longer matching with the security. This results in Quicken just tagging every downloaded TXN as "Unidentified Security."
He told me that the Quicken support team is having considerable trouble connecting with a group within Fidelity NetBenefits who owns and supports this code. He said that many times, companies have this connectivity coded, and then people move on and/or the team becomes disbanded, making it virtually impossible to find anyone to own and correct the issue.
I can validate this myself, as I've called Fidelity support 3 different times and have been shunted to groups all over within their 401K retirement area, but no one can ever identify which Fidelity SVP/VP has ownership. Fidelity opened a ticket for me today: TICKET #: W327406-09OCT23
They told me that they'd be back to me within 5 business days and hopefully they will have identified who has ownership of the NetBenefits/Quicken TXN download technical support. I relayed to the Quicken VP, Customer Service that I'm extremely persistent, as are many within the Quicken Community. I told him that I'd relay that contact information to he and his team as soon as I have it.
In the absence of Fidelity getting back that important information, I've always found that the best approach is to start at the top and work down. I'll provide an update within 7 business days (to give Fidelity an appropriate response window). If they're unable to provide that contact, our next approach will be direct outreach to the CEO of Fidelity (Abby Johnson). She'll be able to identify the Sr. Executive on her team that would have ownership and we can move forward from there. STAY TUNED! If we need to do that level of outreach, I'll provide her contact info so that others within the Quicken Community can jointly reach out as well. We'll definitely get this issue fixed; it may just require more help from within the Community.
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Thank you!
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@glenn.hout, thank you for your hard work. Could you please provide me with Abby Johnson’s contact information? I would like to contact her as well.
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I allocate about 2 hours every Saturday morning trying to fix problems with Quicken. So many freaking bugs and do not get me started on Fidelity Netbenefits issues. I need to just find a different application.
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Mid-October - any new updates?
I track a majority of my finances in my 401k, and Quicken has not been useful in doing this since July 24th for me.
Can we get a weekly update on progress being made?
Thanks…
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I have the same issue. My Fidelity Netbenefit tracking is a mess. It was correct until sometime this summer, but a similar issue had occurred a year or so ago - suddenly all the investments have a "2" at the end, some disappear from my portfolio, and my account portfolio only shows a couple securities. The transaction history is all there, but the names of the securities keep changing.
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Not sure if it's related but feel that it likely is. I am having the same issue reported below where only one of my two securities is being pulled in from Fidelity 401k.
Appreciate your persistence and hopefully we can get this issue resolved as well.
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This is happening to me too and I'm tired of manually updating the downloads. It's especially amusing since Quicken is calling out their special relationship with Fidelity on the Quicken loading screen.
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I am the creator of this post and share the frustration. I just got off a long call with Fidelity. The NetBenefits people, who had failed to address this in a prior problem ticket a month or so ago, today redirected me to Electronic Customer Support and a new problem ticket has been created under my name that includes a link to this post. Hopefully, we can get some traction.
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Thanks for the update, BarryMo! I pulled up my Quicken yesterday and realized I hadn't opened it for a month. And sure enough immediate face planted into the complete mess this situation makes of my investments once I let a download occur. I backed things out and have cut my online connection to Fidelity but this is ridiculous. It's obviously a problem on the Fidelity end because of the complete switch out of security IDs. I can see where they changed in July without any rationale for the shift.
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NEXT STEP - CONTACT ABBY JOHNSON - CEO, FIDELITY INVESTMENTS:
I got off the phone with Fidelity Customer support again today and no one at any level within support still knows the group or SVP/VP who is responsible for handling Netbenefits Online Technical Customer Support. I have 2 escalated tickets now that have been outstanding for over a week, but I'm still not getting any closer to finding who has responsibility. It has become painfully obvious that no one internally within Fidelity Customer Support knows who or which group has ownership of online technical support for Fidelity Netbenefits, and the "Unidentified Security" issue appears to have been introduced on the Fidelity side with how they're encoding fields in their Direct Connect downloads.
We need the Quicken Community now to outreach directly to Abby Johnson, CEO of Fidelity. As I said previously, it is always best to start at the top and work down. Abby will know exactly who on her executive team owns Customer Experience/Customer Support for Fidelity Netbenefits, and can point us immediately to that person.
Abby's email address is: abby.johnson@fidelity.com
With any CEO outreach, your email needs to be short (3-4 sentences) and have a short subject line that explains exactly what we're seeking. It should not be emotional or a rant, but a specific "ask" for her help. Let's please keep it professional!
My note will look like this:
Subject: NEED CEO-LEVEL HELP - Fidelity Netbenefits Technical Customer Support SVP/VP
Will everyone reaching out please report back to this group upon getting a response? We'd like to relay that SVP/VP Name & Contact info to Quicken's Customer Support VP and team.
THANKS.
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Yes, I will email. I do have to say that I am disappointed in Fidelity. I used to find them to be a professional company that was committed to quality control. They valued accuracy, paid attention to detail, resolved issues quickly and were committed to being 'best-in-class'. Sadly, seems the sign of the times. People, in general, are slipping and standards are lowering because everyone is in such a hurry.
Thank you BarryMo and Garry Hout for your diligence.
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I emailed also. I am disappointed with ongoing issues, but when companies have to concentrate on ESG and other political issue, they do not have time for quality business practices and loyal customers.
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UPDATE #1 - 1st RESPONSE FROM FIDELITY EXECUTIVE:
I just received an acknowledgement response from an executive in Abby Johnson's office this morning (see at very bottom of note). I hope that this outreach will result in some solid and quick action. I'm also posting below the exact email that I sent to Abby Johnson, CEO Fidelity yesterday. Feel free to utilize anything you find useful:
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2023 2:39 PM
To: abby.johnson@fidelity.com
Subject: NEED CEO-LEVEL HELP - Fidelity Netbenefits Technical Customer Support SVP/VP
Hi Abby,
I need and would appreciate your immediate help connecting me with Fidelity Netbenefits SVP/VP of Online Technical Customer Experience/Support. Not only do I have two (2) escalated tickets languishing within Fidelity’s support channels, but no one at any level within Fidelity has yet been able to point me to the SVP/VP that would have ownership. This is an issue plaguing every Fidelity Netbenefits customer who use Quicken, making the interaction between the two platforms virtually useless. The problem has persisted since July 2023.
I told the CEO and VP, Customer Service at Quicken that I would spearhead finding that contact at Fidelity for them to engage to get this problem fixed, as they indicated that they have only reached dead-ends within Fidelity themselves.
Your prompt response is very much appreciated.
Sincerely,
Glenn
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FOLLOW-UP EMAIL FROM FIDELITY EXECUTIVE IN ABBY'S OFFICE THIS MORNING:
-----Original Message-----
From: Executive@fidelity.com [mailto:Executive@fidelity.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2023 10:04 AMSubject: Fidelity Investments Email Follow Up
Dear Mr. Hout:
Please accept this message as confirmation that your correspondence to our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Abigail Johnson, was forwarded to my attention for review. I appreciate your patience while I research the issues raised in your correspondence.
Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.
Sincerely,
Nathan Snyder
Assistant to the Chairman and CEO
Executive Office
W434291-18OCT23
Clearing, custody or other brokerage services provided by National Financial Services LLC or Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, Members NYSE, SIPC
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Thank You glenn_hout for taking initiative to solve the issue for all of us.. I shared in this same channel on Sep 5 what is broken from Fidelity. Bottomline is that Fidelity has started to send true CUSIP in new transactions only but kept Fund ID in investment portfolio details causing mismatch.
Thank You again.
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Can Quicken product team explain how the security matching works? Apparently it's not based on the ticket symbol. Maybe there is a workaround before the product team provides the fix.
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Quote data for indexes and publicly traded securities (but not bonds) comes from Quicken's quote provider and uses the security's ticker symbol.
Transaction data comes from the brokerage where you hold the securities and uses the CUSIP ID to match to the security in Quicken.
When you add a new security manually, Quicken does not have the CUSIP ID and the Matched to online security box on the Security Detail view is un-checked. Each downloaded transaction includes the CUSIP ID and if Quicken does not have a matching security, a dialog is displayed with a guess for the correct security and asking you to confirm that match, select the correct matching security, or add the new security. Once you confirm, select, or add the security, the CUSIP ID is recorded for that security, and the Matched to online security box is checked.
If you make the wrong selection here, this and future transactions will be recorded for the wrong security.
The transaction downloads also include the total number of shares held and the most recent price for each security, also using the CUSIP ID.
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EDITED changed "code" sections to images to avoid this forum's formatting.
Based on what was reported here:
And this:
I thought it might be interesting if not that helpful to add a bit more to the technical details.
Here is a transaction from a QFX file, you can get the same kind of information from Quicken's OFX log file after doing a download from Fidelity:
Now farther down there is sort the "summary" section and in that section is the security list. I have put a part of it below:
This is how Quicken connects the security in the transaction to the CUSIP that will be used for matching in the rest of Quicken.
Clearly if the two different sections don't line up then there is no way for Quicken to properly identify what security is used in the transaction.
Note that this "Summary section" not being handle correctly is also the cause of the doubling of the cash balance in Quicken when using Fidelity/401K/Simple investment mode (many threads on this since the Simple investment mode was introduce in Quicken).
It really seems like the Fidelity people handling the 401K backend should talk to the Fidelity brokerage backend people, because as you can see none of this is a problem in the non-401K accounts.
Signature:
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Glen, thank you once again for your efforts. I will also send an email to Abby. However, I have a simple question for Quicken support and Eric Dunn, the CEO of Quicken. As a paying customer of Quicken, I expect that the initiative Glen spearheaded should have been taken by Quicken support instead. Is there a way we can send an email to Eric Dunn as well? I believe he should be aware that his company is failing to support its customers.
Best Regards
Virgil Wilson
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In many 401Ks, there are offerings that are not publicly traded and do not have a ticker symbol. They still have a CUSIP ID though.
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It is the same process I described above and @Chris_QPW elaborated on. When you download a transaction for any security, publicly traded or not, Quicken looks at the UNIQUEID field (usually the CUSIP ID) to see if it has a matching security. If so, it applies the data to that security. If not, it asks you what to do as I described above.
The ticker symbol is used by Quicken's quote provider to update the quote data.
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Here is some more information that hopefully will clear up a bit of the confusion. First off, nowhere in the QFX/downloaded data is the ticker included. It isn't considered a reliable unique Id because different securities can in fact have the same ticker.
On the other hand, Quicken's third-party service only works off of the ticker, not the CUSIP ID. (side note just so people know, the QIF format always uses the ticker).
So, it seems like you have an impossible barrier here for getting the security prices. But that barrier is resolved using what was explained above and knowing all the possible ways that Quicken can get a security price.
The first is manual input either directly into the security price or in a manually entered transaction.
The next way Quicken gets a price is from the third-party quote service where you have told (or it looked up) the ticker and is stored in that security information on Quicken.
So, for this one, on the first download of a security, Quicken asks you to match the CUSIP ID to a security it knows about, which links it to a ticker.
The last way Quicken gets a price is in the downloaded data from the financial institution.
If you look at the second screenshot of the security list you will see that it includes the UNITPRICE, that is the security's price.
The only part that remains is what to do when it gets prices for different sources. Quicken gives each a different priority to try to make sure that the most current one is used. In the case of the private securities in a 401K you basically only get the prices from the UNITPRICE in the downloaded data.
I hope all of this makes it very clear that with investment data especially, it isn't just the individual transactions that matter there is a lot of extra data that all has to be consistent. "Complete investing mode" uses certain parts of this data, and "Simple investing mode" uses other parts.
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I've been dealing with this for 2 months …………. I wonder why it only affects SOME but NOT ALL Fidelity NetBenefits 401/403 users ? Perhaps a phased cut-over of some sort within Fidelity ?
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I would say that might be a good guess. For things like this to support customers all over the country they have to have many servers and the changes could be pushed out over time. Just recently Chase broke the Web Connect/QFX file (missing/incorrect information in it), it still worked for me a week after the first people started reporting it, but then finally was broke for me too.
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MISSION ACCOMPLISHED - HOPEFULLY…
I connected Eric Dunn (CEO, Quicken) and Quicken's VP, Support yesterday with Nathan Snyder (Assistant to the Chairman and CEO, Executive Office, Fidelity) via email introductions (10/23/2023). Nathan Snyder works in Abby Johnson's executive office and has been tasked with the research and resolution of the "Unidentified Security" issues that I had escalated within Fidelity. Nathan had reached out to me after my escalation letter directly to Abby Johnson. Now executives from BOTH companies are talking with one another, which is a very good sign!
Let's hope that this results in a fast resolution to this issue that has been plaguing every Fidelity Netbenefits/Quicken user now since July 2023 when Fidelity made a change to their TXN download code.
Eric Dunn has been incredibly responsive. He responded to my initial outreach and also to my outreach yesterday of connecting him to Fidelity's executive office within less than an hour on both occasions. I really appreciate his professionalism and responsiveness!
Take care & fingers crossed for a quick resolution.
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I received a call from Fidelity stating they hope to release a fix on November 2nd.
I am not sure if anyone else has had any similar conversations.
I also asked what type of testing did they do to ensure the fix will address the issue. The individual was not able to directly answer. I also asked how should we handle any downloaded transactions but not edited or deleted or accepted ? The individual was not able to say exactly how all the incorrect transactions would be rectified. Hopefully more to come … but if anyone has any additional info it would be great to share.
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Glenn
President Bush landed on an aircraft carrier in May 2003 after invasion of Iraq with a sign saying mission accomplished. I wont believe it untill a fix is in place . I would keep pressing the teams for a release date .
Thanks
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This is now working for me! Thanks to all who called Fidelity. My calls were met with denials so I am pleased that we persevered!
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Barry
Is it just downloading new transactions and matching correctly.
What about downloaded transaction that were not accepted . Is it replacing those or did you manually match previous downloaded tranactions
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Based on my test of live data it would seem it is not correcting past downloaded transactions. It will still need to be manually corrected. Unless someone has an ingenious hack on how to get Quicken to download history and have Quicken treated like new download transactions.
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