I just noticed that Quicken has a fairly good FAQ on the transfer of holdings from T.D. Ameritrade to Schwab (including screenshots, which can't be posted here).
While that move occurred some time ago, I think the basics of that FAQ could help Quicken users with most transfers of investment accounts from one financial institution to another, so I'm posting a link to that FAQ.
Moving your TD Ameritrade accounts to Schwab in Quicken
After re-reading the referenced Quicken FAQ. I decided to add some comments of my own here, on the chance it might offer some useful information for future readers.
The two major choices in Quicken when investment holdings are transferred to a new account are: keep the same Quicken account or create a new Quicken account.
It's always been my practice to do everything I can to have my Quicken data reflect what occurs in the real-world. Whenever I get a new account in the real-world (of whatever type and for whatever reason), I create a new account in Quicken.
It is certainly possible to continue using the same old Quicken account, and doing so will probably slightly simplify the change from old-to-new; but taking that approach does not create the stark distinction between old and new in Quicken that I want to exist.
The user can always enter some sort of transaction (in investment accounts, that would probably be a "Reminder" transaction) to denote that there was a switch between real-world accounts as of a certain date. But the user then has to remember that such a switch occurred so they can then remember to look for the "reminder" of the switch to see when it occurred.
Having a brand new account makes it impossible to be confused that an old account was closed and a new account was open, and when that event occurred. The more time that passes after the event, the easier it is to forget it happened, much less when. And the old and new Quicken accounts will better reflect the activity that took place in the real-world.
But my treatment of keeping the old account or creating a new account is no more than a personal preference, and admittedly one that can take a bit more work to get started.
However when Quicken (in the FAQ that's the subject of this discussion) suggests that the user "Move" the investment transactions from the old account to the new account, I think that is just a mistake. That would make it appear that the old transactions occurred in the new account, which is just wrong. And it's not necessary to have the old transactions in the new account).
It's not necessary to move the old transactions to the new account in order to establish the correct cost basis in the new account: the Quicken "Transfer shares between accounts" pseudo-transaction will transfer the cost basis (by transferring each "lot" and its cost from the old account to the new account.
So my process for transferring holdings from one Quicken account to another is:
- Create the new investment account (DO NOT activate it for downloading)
- If the old account is a retirement account that contains cash; create a Dummy Cash security and use the cash in the old account to purchase shares of the Dummy Cash security at $1.00/share in the old account (*)
- In the old investment account, use the "Enter Transactions" button to create a "Shares Transferred Between Accounts" transaction, and tell Quicken to transfer "All Securities". [If the old account is a retirement account, its Dummy Cash security will be transferred just like every other security.]
- Quicken will create a single "Shares Removed" transaction in the old account for every security owned there; and one "Shares Added" transaction in the new account for every lot of every security owned in the old account. The Shares Added transactions will be dated the date of the "Shares Transferred between Accounts" transaction (so make that date the date the real-world transfer took place). Each "Shares Added" transaction in the new account will have a "Date acquired" equal to the date the lot was acquired on the old account: thus creating a correct cost basis in the new account.
- If the old account is a retirement account and shares of the Dummy Cash security were transferred to the new account: sell all shares of the Dummy Cash security at $1.00/share to put actual cash in the new account.
- Once the new Quicken account is correct: Activate it for downloading
- When the first download to the new account occurs, it's likely that there will be transactions downloaded that represent the transfer of holdings into the new account. BUT those transactions will most likely be wrong (there will probably be one transaction per security - meaning the total cost basis for that security MIGHT be right, but the cost basis for individual lots will be lost). So do not Accept those transfer-of-holdings transactions sent by the financial institution - if the Quicken "Shares Transferred Between Accounts" pseudo-transaction was used, the new account will already have the correct holdings and the correct cost basis for every lot owned.
- I never use the Quicken "Close account" feature; but at this point I would be considering what changes to make to the "Display Options" for the old account. The decision can be postponed, in part or in full, but at some point it might be desirable to hide the old account in one or more ways (the choices being: "Hide in transaction entry lists", "Hide account name in account bar and account list", and "Keep this account separate - ....").
[ (*) Using a Dummy "security" to transfer cash between accounts avoids having Quicken deal with the apparent withdrawal and deposit of cash in retirement accounts (Quicken treats "cash" deposited in retirement accounts as a "Contribution", for example). If the accounts are non-retirement accounts, the "Cash transferred out of account" or "Cash transferred into account" transaction can be used to transfer any cash.]BeanSmart website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.