Tax Cost Basis

msmensik · July 4

My broker changed firms and I had to transfer all my investment accounts in Quicken to new accounts. I sync everything electronically. All stock names, quantities and prices came across correctly, but none of the tax cost basis numbers have appeared in the new account in Quicken. Thoughts?

jacobs · July 4

In Quicken Mac, what you'd want to do is use the Transfer Shares feature to transfer all the share of your securities from one brokerage to another, before setting up the new accounts for downloading. Doing this will preserve the cost basis in Quicken; in the new brokerage account, each lot of each security (purchase or reinvestment) will be created as an Add Shares transaction on the date of the transfer, but with a Date Acquired retaining the original purchase date. If you only downloaded your holdings in the new brokerage electronically, Quicken has no way to know the original acquisition date of each lot.

John_in_NC · July 4

@jacobs: Assuming the OP hasn't deleted the original account, couldn't he or she still use the Transfer Shares option still even after the new account is setup, and the placeholders will adjust accordingly (or disappear)? I have never tried, but I can't see why not.

(Note: Transfer Shares can be found by creating a new transaction in old investment account, and Transfer Shares is an option under the "Type" drop down list containing Buy, Sell, Dividend Income, etc.)

Alternatively, the OP can enter the Cost Basis in the Add Shares transactions in the new account, assuming he or she knows the amounts. But, lots will be lost as you noted.

jacobs · July 4

Assuming the OP hasn't deleted the original account, couldn't he or she still use the Transfer Shares option still even after the new account is setup, and the placeholders will adjust accordingly (or disappear)?

If the new accounts were populated with Placeholder transactions then I think you're right (at least in theory). But I was thinking that the new brokerage added shares of each security and likely downloaded those transactions to Quicken as either Buy or Add Shares transactions. So using Transfer Shares now might result in duplicating the holdings, and then negative placeholder to get the holdings back in line.

My suggestion would be to open a backup from just before this all took place, then Transfer Shares to empty out of the old account and popular the new accounts — with tracking of cost basis lot by lot — and then to connect the account(s) for downloading. If the brokerage then downloads Buy or Add Shares transactions, they would be easy to select and delete en masse.

msmensik · July 20

Many thx. I know about the transfer shares option, but was hoping to avoid having to go through that drill. I seem to recall that the last time that my broker switched firms, I just had to connect to new firm (Merrill) and the new accounts were created and populated automatically. It took a while longe for the cost basis to get downloaded, but eventually everything was synched. My broker's new firm IT dept. is in touch with Quicken to see why everything except cost basis data has been downloaded this time … stay tuned!

John_in_NC · July 20

Cost Basis is not something downloaded from the financial institution. It is calculated within Quicken based on transactions.

jacobs · July 20

I know about the transfer shares option, but was hoping to avoid having to go through that drill.

Just curious: why? It takes a few seconds and captures your accurate cost basis.

John_in_NC · July 21

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20499795#Comment_20499795

And if you are still against transferring shares (which I am confused as @Jacobs is as to why you don't), you can also enter the total cost in the add shares placeholder transx in your new account.

You will lose the lot history, but the cost basis will be correct and the only way it will get into your file. It won't be downloaded.

Tax Cost Basis

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