Quicken Deluxe Does not import cash balances from Pershing LLC Brokerage Accounts

User_0168

Hello, I am using the Quicken Deluxe Subscription, and have been a Quicken user for more than 10 years. I recently changed investment management to a Pershing LLC advisor. I am able to automatically download (One Step Update) and review all of my investment accounts held at Pershing. However, the accounts do not reconcile as Quicken seems to not recognize or not download the cash balances held in each of those accounts. When I manually update the cash balances in Quicken, the account balances will reconcile, but, the next time I do a One Step Update (automatic update), the cash balance disappears again and the account balance is off again by the amount of the "missing" cash. And, the account does not show any cash balance in the Quicken register. The cash is held in the Pershing accounts in a "Brokerage Money Market" account - basically a cash sweep account. Internally, they call it a "FlexInsured Account". I've seen similar issues posted, but not this one specifically - and no solution that seems applicable to my issue. Thanks for any suggestions.

Tom Young

"However, the accounts do not reconcile as Quicken seems to not recognize or not download the cash balances held in each of those accounts."

I'm not exactly sure what you're telling us here. Ignoring the "downloading" aspect of the question, Quicken keeps a running balance of cash based on transactions that use cash. Quicken doesn't "download" cash balances in the sense that it somehow "plugs it into" the portfolio as some sort of transaction or erases whatever cash is in the Account - at least I've never seen that happen. It does download the cash balance in the sense of comparing the number the broker is reporting to the running balance that Quicken has calculated based on transactions and should throw up a "Mismatch" warning if the two numbers are not the same.

Are you saying that after manually updating the cash balance - entering a "plug" number presumably - that when you look at the Account's Holdings you see that cash, but with the next download the cash disappears from the Holdings?

You mention the "'Brokerage Money Market'" account." Is that literally an account at Pershing separate and distinct from the account the holds the securities? In that case I'd expect that the brokerage account would not have any cash in it; all cash would be in a separate "linked" account. Maybe that's what you're facing?

User_0168

Thanks for the reply, and sorry for the delay in responding. Also sorry I wasn't clearer in my prior post. I have multiple accounts at this brokerage (IRA's, Fixed Income, Taxable Growth, etc. - my names for them). In each account, there is an amount of cash held, whether generated by dividends, interest, bond redemptions, transfers in/out, asset sales, etc.. The cash balances change every day. The cash is held as (or shows on my brokerage site as being) an "asset" (my characterization) inside each of those accounts - not in a separate account. The "asset" has a separate CUSIP number, so seems to be treated like an actual investment asset, not an account. It's just a line item like each other asset held in the account. The When I do a One-Step update, none of these cash 'assets' is picked up in Quicken. If I manually plug the cash balances in for each account, they just revert to zero the next day. So, my total portfolio balance is always off by the amount of "cash assets" held in these various accounts. This cash does not appear in a separate and distinct account at Pershing - it simply shows up as an asset or line item in each of my accounts. Until recently, I held my accounts at Schwab, and never had this issue before.

User_0168

Oddly, when I go to Tools > Online Center > Holdings , the cash "assets" do not appear in the list of holdings. However, when I go to Tools > Online Center > Balances, the accurate cash balances appear there as "Money Market Funds". It just seems as though the "Money Market Funds" are not being pulled into the account registers for some reason - since they do not show up as "holdings" in those accounts for some reason.

Tom Young

"The "asset" has a separate CUSIP number"

Cash doesn't have a CUSIP number but a "traded" (not "sweep") money market fund should have one. Is the asset included in the Security List by any chance? ("Security Detail View > Edit details > Other Info) CUSIPs come from the broker and if the CUSIP is there then the box "Matched with online security" should be checked. If it is checked I'd uncheck that box. I'd guess that some internal screw-up in the file is at work here since the "Money Market Funds" - which certainly sounds like a security - is showing up in one part of the Online Center.

Complicating all this is that some Financial Institutions (FI) have a preference that money market funds - even traded ones - be included as "cash" in Quicken, though you should have the option to change your preference - treat as cash or treat as a security - with a re-authorization from the FI for downloading to Quicken. So another thing to try is to disconnect ALL the Accounts and then see if that question comes up.

Also, it seems to me like you might be accepting Placeholders automatically and hiding them in the Transaction List. That's the only way I can think of for positions to "revert to zero" without an actual transaction that you can see, zeroing things out.

Maybe start off your attempt to get things right with a File Validation and Repair, then check preferences (Investments and Downloaded transactions) , and each of the Accounts individually, to not automatically accept downloaded transactions and to not hide transactions. That might help to sleuth out what's going on.

User_0168

Will give it a shot. Thanks for taking the time to help me sus this out. Will post further if I come up with an answer, or any further useful info.

Chris_QPW

Are you using Simple investing mode in that account?

This would show up as a "Dashboard" for the account instead of a register.

User_0168

Ok, back with more specific information, but not a solution.

To summarize, I have two cash money market "securities" at Pershing that will not download into my brokerage registers in Quicken.

1. The first is called "Flexinsured Account" and this "security" holds the cash balances in each of my TAXABLE accounts. On the Pershing site, the security list indicates that this "security" has symbol FLEX and CUSIP PER338610 - and describes the "security" asset class as a Money Market Fund.
2. The second is called "Insured Deposit Sweep Account" and holds the cash balances in each of my TAX-DEFERRED accounts. On the Pershing site, the security list indicated that this "security" has symbol ISDA and CUSIP PER987804. Asset class is also Money market Fund.

Obviously, the tickers and CUSIP's are internal to Pershing and do not seem to be externally registered or recognizable.

The balances in these Money Market funds do not download into the Quicken registers for any of the accounts in which these cash balances are held. So, my total portfolio (and the balance in each separate brokerage account) is "off" by the exact amount of these balances.

In Quicken Online Center, these "securities" do not appear in the "Holdings" tab for any of the accounts. However, under the "Balances" tab, the exact amount of the cash in these money market funds does appear under the line item "Money Market Funds" and the description on that line item says "Value of Money Market Funds." I note that the Online Center itself indicates that these tabs show "Balances at [Financial Institution] as of [today's date], so it appears to be simply reflecting what the FI is telling it.

>Under the "Holdings" tab, when I click on "Compare to Portfolio" it says "Your Quicken Account and your Brokerage Holdings are in Agreement" (they are not)

>I have done a File Validation and Repair. No issues.

>Under "Investment Preferences" I have checked "Show Hidden Transactions" just in case. No change.

>In the Security List, these "securities" do appear, but the Pershing CUSIP number shows up there as the ticker symbol, not the CUSIP. I tried adding a new security with both the symbols (FLEX and ISDA) and the CUSIP Nos. No luck.

>The "Matched with Online Security" box is grayed out, and is not checked. Cannot be edited.

>I am not accepting any placeholders. I've simply tried to update the cash balances in these accounts manually once or twice, thinking I would just have to do that perpetually when I wanted accurate portfolio balances. However, when I've done that, the next Update just seems to overwrite the manual cash balances I entered with no line item at all, as that is what is being downloaded from Pershing. So the manual cash balances just disappear.

Will keep at it, including trying to disconnect and reconnect the accounts. Thanks.

Chris_QPW

It isn't that unusual for financial institutions not to send "cash security" information. This really shouldn't be a problem most of the time (If you are using the Complete investing mode).

To start you need to put in a Deposit where the category is [This Account]. This is a balance adjustment. Preferably as the "Opening Balance" transaction.

With that established, when you buy/sell it will just go to the cash balance in that register. If you transfer money in or out of that account, then just either enter a transfer in that account or from the account other account that it is going to/from.

If you are looking to track the different "cash securities" then clearly the only way to do that with what Quicken has is to enter the transactions manually. I certainly don't recommend that.

Going back to your original statement though:

When I manually update the cash balances in Quicken, the account balances will reconcile, but, the next time I do a One Step Update (automatic update), the cash balance disappears again and the account balance is off again by the amount of the "missing" cash.

Quicken doesn't update the cash balance based on any information downloading when in Complete Investing mode. It only does that in Simple Investment mode. That is the reason I asked if you are using Simple investing mode.

Complete Investing mode only looks at the transactions and except for reporting the cash balance in one place (very hidden place Update cash balance dialog) it is never shown/used. On the other hand, Simple investing mode only looks at the "summary" information downloaded. This is the number of shares/price of the securities and it should have the cash balance too, but there are reported problems with getting the right cash balance. Bottom line is until those problems are fixed; you can't use Simple investment mode with some financial institutions/account types.

So, again, when you select the account name from the Account bar does it look like this(Simple investment mode)?

Or this (Complete investment mode)?

User_0168

Thanks Chris. I was originally using Simple Investing, but I went ahead and deleted all of my investments accounts at this broker, and re-connected using Complete Investing. Exact same issue with both. At least I can force the balances to match if I enter a cash transaction in the Transactions register, as suggested above. I feel like I'm narrowing it down, though - will keep at it. Thanks all for your help and suggestions.