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Best way to modify my Roth Investing Account

kashg

I use Quicken for Windows. Version R62.16, Build 27.1.62.16

I have a single Roth IRA investing account going back to 1999. This includes thousands of transactions from 3 brokerages (not used any more) and Janus, Schwab and Vanguard. I typically download the Schwab transactions and Vanguard ones and manually enter the Janus . This register is now getting too big and I would like to set up separate Schwab Roth, Vanguard Roth, Janus Roth accounts in my Investing Register. And keep a Misc Roth with the misc Roth transactions from the 3 old brokerages.

What is the best way of doing this without losing my old data?

I thought deleting the Roth IRA account. Then setting up a separate Vanguard Roth and downloading all Vanguard Roth transactions to this account. Then set up a Schwab Roth Account and downloading all the Schwab Roth transactions here. Same with Janus. But then, what do I do with the other transactions from 3 brokerages (not used any more)?

Is this risky? I am nervous if something gets screwed up during the download process,

Thanks for your help.

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[Deleted User]

@kashg before you zero out the balance in the old IRA account, make sure the account is in balance and reconciles with your three investment accounts at each broker. Then you will take that balance and split into three separate balances (investment & cash) that reconciles with the three brokerage accounts. You will probably need to do this in a spreadsheet or on paper. Once that is done you will know what your starting balances or positions are for each of the three new IRAs.

Zeroing out the balance in the old IRA means transferring out out shares and cash to each of the new IRA accounts as @Jim_Harman describes in his comment. You would use "Shares Transferred Between Accounts" for the securities and "Cash Transferred out of Account" for the cash.

But again the critical piece is making sure that the ending balance of your Old IRA is reconciled before you start the actual transfer of securities and cash to the new IRA accounts. On the flip side the other critical piece is knowing what your beginning balances (securities and cash) should be in your new IRA accounts after you are done.

All comments

NotACPA

I'm unclear about your accounts. What FI do you actually have account(s) with?

And, what securities (don't need individual securities, just who issued them) do you hold in those account(s)?

[Deleted User]

@kashg it sounds like you really should have had six separate Roth IRA accounts set up on Quicken, three closed, and three current. Ideally, it would be best if the six Roth IRA accounts where separated with transaction history on Quicken, but I think separating out the six accounts and transaction history would be a nightmare. Accurately identifying transactions for each of the six accounts by brokerage, and moving transaction history that goes back to 1999 would not be an easy task.

That being said, I think you should rename the existing IRA something like "Old Roth IRA", set up three new separate Roth IRA accounts on Quicken, one for each brokerage. You would need to pick a conversion date (month end, or year end?) and zero out balances in the old Roth IRA, establish beginning balances in the new IRAs, and then start downloading transactions to the three new Roth IRA accounts. The old Roth IRA account will still be there to use for historical transactions. Using statement balances would probably be the easiest for establishing beginning balances in the three new Roth IRAs on Quicken.

Jim_Harman

Do you hold the same security in more than one real life account? If the securities are all different, one approach would be to set up 3 new accounts in Quicken, one for each of your real life accounts as @CaliQkn suggests.

Then pick a conversion date. It will be easiest if you pick today, so that there are no new transactions after the conversion date.

Start by backing up your data file in case something goes wrong.

Then in the old account, for each security you currently own, click on Enter Transactions and next to Enter Transaction, select "Shares Transferred Between Accounts."

Select the security name and under Transfer method, select All. Select the new account to transfer it to and click on Enter/Done.

This will enter one Removed transaction in the old account for all the shares you own on the conversion date and an Added transaction in the new account for each tax lot of the security. If there are several years of reinvested dividends, this will take some time.

When you are done the securities in each of the new accounts should match what the brokerages show.

An even simpler method since this a tax free account and you don't really care about the cost basis or tax lots of the securities, would be to go to the old account and Remove all the securities that you hold in your current real life accounts. Then in the new accounts, Add your current holdings on the same date and go forward from there.

kashg

Thanks for the responses.

@NotACPA My old accounts were with 20th Century, TR Price, Berger and Fidelity and were their own funds and not third party funds.

@CaliQkn You are absolutely right. I should have had separate accounts for each but did not anticipate the future problems well enough. I am going to do a trial run and check out your suggestion.

@Jim_Harman Thanks. Good suggestion too. I just tried it for a few securities and mulling over the effort to do them all. My fault though in neglecting this for so long.

kashg

@CaliQkn

You suggest "zero out balances in the old Roth IRA, establish beginning balances in the new IRAs". How do I do that? Do I go to the Register and "Transfer Cash Out"/XOut? But then where do I transfer that? To which account? Thanks

[Deleted User]

kashg

@CaliQkn Thank you

[Deleted User]

@kashg you are welcome. If you have any further questions on these IRA transfers, please don't hesitate to circle back.