TIAA-CREF Data downloads

[PWatson]

Mark,

I have several clients with accounts at TIAA-CREF. I just spoke with Caroline Price in their Charlotte operations department about client data downloads. She was extremely helpful and knowledgeable. Tomorrow, when I log on to my advisors page, I will have a new data download button. That will then send all my client information in a comma delimited zip file, from which I can then import into FM. She also sent a mapping sheet to help me navigate that.
She said that they mapped to Schwabb Portfolio Center as a default template. My question is, since you have an "other" option listing Schwabb, should I use that to import, or stay with the comma delimited import? Also, she wasn't sure how FM might handle the zip file. Will I need to extract that, first, or will FM know what to do with it?

Thanks, Phil

P.S. I hope that I'm now wearing out my welcome with all these postings. I'm just a little challenged. Loving this software, though. Don't know how I ever got along without it.

[Mark]

Hi Phil,

Please feel free to ask as many questions as you want, this is always a good thing...

I believe I've talked to the same Caroline Price at TIAA-CREF myself before. My understanding from her was that they provide standard formatted files, that would be the same format as the "TD Ameritrade" interface. You should get a set of files each day (*.TRN, *.POS, *.SEC, and *.PRI). These will probably all come in the .ZIP file, which you'll have to unzip yourself. Once you do, please try the "File / Import / Transactions / TD Ameritrade..." import command, and select your unzipped *.TRN file. Leave all the other files in the same folder as that .TRN file, as Fund Manager will pull pricing/security information as necessary. I've never seen sample files from TIAA-CREF before, so would be interested to hear how they import using the TD Ameritrade interface.

[PWatson]

Mark,

Here's a copy of the email from Ms. Price.


Hi Phil –

It was a pleasure to speak with you this afternoon. I did enable the web download for you and it will be available tomorrow morning. When you login, you will see a new menu option at the top for Client Data Download. Once you download the ZIP file you will have the individual data files for use with your application Fund Manager. As we discussed, these files are laid out for Schwab’s product PortfolioCenter in a comma delimited format. Above the download button you have two PDF files available. The Summary report will provide a breakdown of each client and the account details for each of their accounts. This will be a good check and balance tool for getting started. You will also begin to accumulate 90 business days of Historical activity beginning tomorrow. This way if you go on vacation or choose to only download periodically you can download files at any time at your convenience. Finally, I have attached a mapping document to assist you with mapping to Fund Manager.

Please let me know if you have any questions. And thank you again for contacting us for your download needs.

Caroline

[PWatson]

Follow up.

As Mark knows, this worked beautifully. I downloaded a file from my advisor site at TIAA-CREF, and then imported all the data into FM. FM created new subs based on the account numbers in the file. I then replaced the account number ( as it appears in both the "name" and "account number" cells,) with the client name, and placed the sub in the correct client folder. Today, the 2nd day of this, I downloaded the file, followed the importing steps and voila, the data found its way to the correct files, updating all of them. Excellent!!!

Mark may get tired of hearing this, but FM is an incredible piece of work, and worth much more than what I paid for it.

Phil