You already have a security with that name

Question

I have several hundred shares of IBM. Most are named International Business Machines Corp. About 80 are named International Business Machines. When I attempt to rename one on Edit Security Details it won't let me, telling me I already have a security of that name.

This presents a bit of an annoyance because Quicken also reports a mismatch on my brokerage account, telling me I have 80 too few shares of one, and 80 too many of the other.

Clear as mud?

Can I resolve this? and how?

q_lurker · Answer

To resolve, you need to edit each of the individual transactions citing International Business Machines and change them to read International Business Machines Corp. (I am assuming there are fewer transactions under one name vs the other.  Edit accordingly.)  Once the edits are completed, delete the now unused security.

The easiest way to edit such transactions is to first sort the investment account transaction list by security.  That way the ones you are editing are all grouped together and the grouping gets smaller as you make the edits. You should also make use of copy and paste features to either append (paste) Corp to the name or to paste the complete preferred name over the non-preferred name.  Even if it is 50 transactions to edit, it can be done pretty quickly.

NotACPA · Answer

IF your Q product has the investment action "Corporate Acquisition" do a 1 for 1 acquisition of "International Business Machines" by the other.

Naturally, before this or any other big action, take a back-up first.