Investment in multiple subportfolio

[mfmelb]

Hi Mark,

What is the ramification of doing the following:
1. Create a new investment, INV1 in sub-portfolio A.
2. Create sub-portfolio B and then open INV1 in sub-portfolio B.

In this way, I have INV1 in both sub-portfolio A and B.
Question:
- if I make a transaction in INV1, will it update both the values in sub-portfolio A and B?
- I notice that in the total, it is adding up INV1 twice - I presume it is addition from A and B.

What I am trying to do is a bit like linking the sub-portfolios except that I am doing it at the investment level. Reason for this is due to the different types of reporting required and as some investments falls into multiple categories, would like to have them included in the report.
I looked at trying to do this with investment goals etc but find that I ran out of field due to the many reporting requirements I have - some of them are regulatory.

Thanks in advance for your reply.

Matt
note: I have the advisor version.

[Mark]

Hi Matt,

Q1: Yes, since you have the same investment file (*.dat) located in multiple places, any changes you make to that investment will be reflected everywhere it is located. In the cases where you own the same investment in different accounts and want separate transactions, you would create separate investment files for each account. You can have multiple investment files for the same security so that you can track separate holdings. It sounds like that may not be what you want here though.

Q2: Yes, if you report at a sub-portfolio above A and B INV1 will be added twice in the total, since it is included twice.

[Maury56]

Mark:
I read this thread and note that subportfolio (SP) A and B will be added 2X in the total.
Not good.
+++++++++++++++++++
I would like to know how to handle my situation in Fund Manager.
I have a complicated Total New Worth (TNW) Let's call that level 1.

I have an IRA with many stocks, ETFs, and Mutual Funds. So that would be level = 2.
The IRA is with Vanguard brokerage and downloads as a single brokerage account.
I follow several advisor services in the process of buying and selling investments in this IRA.
I want to be able to set up SPs (probably about 7) which would in total contain all the investments in my IRA. This would be level 3.
I want to be able to analyze at the total IRA level.
I want to be able to analyze at the individual SP level.
I do not mind making the individual decision about which SP an investment should be assigned to.
Would it be possible to put one investment into 2 different SPs?
Would it be possible if I broke up the investment into as many parts as SPs where I want it to show? i.e. 50% + 50% into 2 @ SPs
When I update I want everything to update everywhere.

I also have another Vanguard brokerage which is JOINT and is a regular taxable account with my wife. This would be another Level 2 account.
These investments also need to be assigned into the level 3 SPs mentioned above.

I also have a Schwab JOINT account. Again this is level 2. These investments need to be assigned to the same level 3 SPs mentioned above. Is it possible to jump between Vanguard and Schwab?

Then there are some other outside individual investments (Level 2s) which need to be considered and totaled into my total net worth(TNW). These would be level 2 hand loaded data. And I would like to be able to analyze at the TNW level.

And most important is that when I get a total at any level (1,2, or 3) there is no double counting.

SO! Will FM Professional allow me to accomplish all that I want to do without "double counting" the SPs when I go to levels above SP?

Can this be done or is it time to call in "PROGRAM MAN" and add some more functionality to FM.

Is it possible to make SPs non-additive but fully functional?

Thanks. Maury56

[Mark]

Hi Maury56,

Sub-portfolios always include everything that is contained within them, all the way down however much hierarchy you have. It doesn't double count anything. If you have some item included twice, then it counts it each time you have included it.

You can do what you want, but if you have a single investment that belongs in what you are calling the 7 different SP3, you would need to break that investment up. For example, if you have 1,000 shares on INTC and 500 belong in SP3-1 and 500 belong in SP3-2 you would need 2 investment files, each with 500 shares, and put one in SP3-1 and the other in SP3-2. When you reconcile at the SP2 level, you will have 1,000 shares, which would reconcile properly. Doing this would require extra manual work on your part, as when you have a transaction in this investment, your broker is just going to report the total amount, and you'd have to divide it up manually between these 2 investments.

Another option you could consider is to utilize either the asset type or investment goal categories, instead of creating your 7 SP3 sub-portfolios. You can rename the category names, so you can make SP3-1 all the way through SP3-7. With categories you can assign an investment to percentages of the different categories. So, in the example above you would assign your single INTC investment to 50% SP3-1 and 50% to SP3-2. When you report, you can list or sub-total by this category.

Is it possible to jump between Vanguard and Schwab?

I didn't understand this question. What do you mean by "jump between"?

[Maury56]

Mark,
Thanks for your reply.
What I meant about jumping between Vanguard and Schwab was: Can an investment from the Schwab brokerage be carried in a subportfolio which is hieritically underneath the Vanguard brokerage?
I think the answer is probably no.

I have decided to pay for FM Professional and commit to learning the program and inputting all my data.
The alternative was Investment Account Manager but their customer service is not as good.
You will be hearing from me more as I struggle up the learning curve.
Maury56

[Mark]

Hi Maury56,

You wouldn't typically want to put one account's sub-portfolio under another account. At any level in the sub-portfolio hierarchy that sub-portfolio contains everything within that sub-portfolio, so if you put account 2 inside account 1, the balances of account 1 would include account 2, which is typically not what you want, and will make reconciling not work.

Thanks for deciding to go with Fund Manager. Let us know if you have any other questions.