Add Estate Inheritance Support for Securities (Stocks, Bonds, Real Estate etc.)

CTY

Currently, Quicken Classic Business & Personal for Windows does not provide a direct way to record inherited assets such as stocks, bonds, or real estate.

For cash inheritance, users can manually create a custom income category (e.g., “Inheritance”), which works reasonably well. However, for securities, the only available options are “Buy” or “Sell” transactions. Using “Buy” to represent inherited shares feels inaccurate, since there is no actual cash outflow or purchase involved.

Proposal: Introduce a dedicated transaction type or workflow for inheritance of securities and property, allowing users to:

• Record inherited stocks, bonds, or real estate without simulating a purchase.
• Track cost basis appropriately (e.g., stepped-up basis rules).
• Maintain accurate portfolio and net worth reporting without distorting cash flow.

This feature would greatly improve Quicken’s ability to handle real-life financial events and estate planning scenarios, ensuring that users can manage their complete financial picture within the software.

Rocket J Squirrel

@CTY

for securities, the only available options are “Buy” or “Sell” transactions. Using “Buy” to represent inherited shares feels inaccurate, since there is no actual cash outflow or purchase involved.

There are other actions, namely Shares Added and Shares Removed, which don't affect the cash balance.

Jim_Harman

Generally the way to handle inherited securities is to use an Added transaction. To set your stepped-up cost basis, use the date of death as the "Date acquired" and the total value (not the cost per share) on that date.

If you receive the shares as a gift or a distribution from a trust, you must use the date the donor or Trust acquired them and the value at that time to set the cost basis.

You can't count on the brokerage to download these transactions correctly; you may need to correct or replace any downloaded transactions in these situations.

For inherited real estate and other assets, you would use an Asset account with the appraised value as of the date of death.

Disclaimer: I am not a tax advisor. You should consult your tax advisor.