Mutual Fund Conversion (again :))

minuteman

Using 2016 Quicken Deluxe. I have a mutual fund that was converted to a different (new) fund with a concurrent share adjustment. When I do the "Mutual Fund Conversion" transaction, the register shows the shares of the original fund removed and the adjusted shares of the new fund added - which seems to look like it should. However, when I look at the "Holdings" for the account, the old fund still shows a share balance and asset value balance. As a result, the total valuation of the account is about twice the actual value.

Any ideas on the problem? I checked the "Security Details" for the old account and the "Use Average Cost" box is not checked (which seems to be an issue based n other posts I've seen).

This particular account is a taxable account where the tax basis is important. I have previously done the same conversion, with the same securities, on a tax-deferred retirement account and did not have this problem.

Tom Young

Close and reopen Quicken to see if that puts things to right?

Jim_Harman

Go to Edit > Preferences > Investing and make sure the Show hidden transactions box is checked.

Then go to the account where the conversion took place and look for any Placeholders that might be adding the old shares back in.

minuteman

Thanks, but that did not change anything.

q_lurker

In that account transaction list, does the last transaction for the old fund before the Remove Shares show the correct number of shares? For the Remove shares transaction, does that show the share balance as 0?

You can also set the As of date for the holdings view to just before and just after the conversion. Do both views look correct or properly different?

minuteman

Got some homework to do. On it tonight.

minuteman

OK, did as suggested above and displayed hidden transactions. There is a place holder transaction for the full amount of shares in the original fund. However, the share balance is correct - not sure why there is a placeholder. How do I get rid of it? Or will getting rid of it mess up the account?

minuteman

and, the tab "Placeholder Entries" at the bottom of the registry shows "0."

minuteman

So, to complete the scenario, before the original conversion attempt I did an "Adjust Share Balance" transaction to bring the share balance to current. I then located the missing transactions and entered them, which I assumed would take the placeholder transaction away. Maybe not?

Anyways, since the placeholder transaction now apparently has no useful function, can I simply delete it and try again?

Jim_Harman

Yes if you created the Placeholder and then entered the missing transactions, you can and should delete the Placeholder.

minuteman

Deleting the placeholder did the trick. All working as expected now. Thanks, all!

I've been using Quicken for about 30 years now and never paid any attention to the placeholder transactions. Who knew :)