Advice on transfer of out of date portfolio

[surendar jeyadev]

I would greatly appreciate some advice on how to handle the transfer of a portfolio that is not up to date in FM into another, existing portfolio.

I had an IRA account at an insurance firm, but their broker (for "security" reasons!) stopped the downloads of portfolio data, transactions, etc. using standard file formats (such as OFX, QFX, ...). As a result, I have not been able to update or reconcile this IRA since June 2024.

I have just transferred that IRA into an existing one at one of my regular financial institutions. Looking at the website, I do see a (rather huge!) bunch of positions that were not there last month. I assume that when I download the portfolio data into FM at the end of this month, these positions will show up as "Transferred In", or some such thing. Is this correct? If so most of the problem is solved.

The only remaining bit is what to do with the old, now empty, IRA. My thought is to just delete it as I do not care for all the data created by constant churning of small positions. As a IRA, the cost basis data, etc. are not really that important. Is it all right to just get rid of it, or should I do a "Transfer Out" and keep the empty portfolio? If there is no real harm, I would like to just delete it.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Mark]

Hi surendar jeyadev,

If you don't care about cost basis or historical performance figures, what you describe will work fine, and be the easiest solution. When retrieving this account the transferred shares could possibly show up as "Buy" transactions or "Transfer In" transactions, it just depends on how they are coded by your new broker.

[surendar jeyadev]

Mark,

Thanks for the prompt response.

Looks like the path is clear. How the transactions are coded is, luckily, not an issue for me as this is an IRA.

As for the old account, I think I will do a simple delete. Getting rid of all those data files would be a blessing!

Thanks again.

sj