Investment Fees in Quicken - HOW?

There would be if you weren't using a single mutual fund account.

You do basically the same thing the brokerage/administrator did: sell the requisite number of shares and use the proceeds to pay the fee.

At the same time, I think it is probably a bit anal to worry about whether the two Quicken transactions occur on the exact same date as the real world transactions. What do you do when a "transfer" is deposited in the TO account on an earlier date than it is withdrawn from the FROM account (say you pay your credit card bill from your checking account ... both accounts at different institutions, both being tracked in Quicken)?

Quicken is probably one of the world's biggest sources of anality. :)

Not being anal...it's the only way I can make $10 worth of shares sold today at one price appear to be a commission on a transaction made another day at a different price (same number of shares results in a commission differnt than $10).

Is there any way you can get your investment manager to accept cash payment instead of IRA shares?

You should really be paying him with after-tax dollars rather than with your valuable IRA shares.

- Bob

I wish but sadly no...

Not sure I understand your reasoning. Your administrator sold a known number of shares to get a known amount of money for a fee. You enter a sell transaction for that number of shares and that total amount - who cares what the price/share is - and you get the correct amount of cash. Use that amount of cash in a second transaction, a MiscExp transaction for the fee. (In a non Single Mutual Fund account, of course). (And I don't think your "fee" is really a "commission" either).

It is worth checking out. I believe Vanguard (for one) will accept a check for the amount of the annual fee if your investment accounts are under the minimum limit. None of my investment accounts charge an explicit fee, so I have never fully investigated the issue.

No, it's not a commission, but in a single mutual fund account it was the only way I could sell shares without having to transfer the proceeds somewhere. I could not find a transaction type that allowed a sale without it thinking I made some money out of it. But you just made me think...I coulr register the sale standalone, and make the commission equal the sale. That way I make nothing out of it...

As for MiscExp. I didn't realize that transaction type existed since it wasn't there before for the years I used the single Mutual Fund account (as you pointed out).

Thanks

Yes, they will accept payment of IRA fees from outside the IRA account. So will virtually all the fi's I deal with.

Another reason to avoid SMF accounts like the plague...

Plus the fact that if your fee is billed and you pay outside your account with real cash, that money itself might be deductible; as the good book sez

"Fees paid to set up or manage an IRA and annual account maintenance fees--provided they are billed separately--are considered investment expenses that may be deductible as a miscellaneous itemized deduction subject to the 2% of Adjusted Gross Income floor."

As always, consult with your tax advisor for specific individual device.

The method you mention here is actually the very one that Quicken help recommends (at least in the 2005 version). Look under "Fees", then "Custodial".

Steve

Not only that: custodial fees are tex-deductible on Schedule A, but ONLY if you pay them in cash rather than having them deducted from the account balance.

David