Brokerage Account Transfers

[elliots]

Mark,

I've transferred accounts from TD Ameritrade to Scottrade and am now receiving advisor files from them.

When I import transactions the new account is set up, and the investments are created with "Buy" transactions with 0 value. They need to be "Transfer In" with the appropriate market value and original purchase date and cost basis. I was hoping to be able to import them and then edit the detail for each investment -- but the BUY transaction does not appear editable into a Transfer In. Is there some shortcut or am I going to have to manually input all the Transfer In transactions and then delete the Buys for each investment?

I'll go to the old accounts and enter Transfer Out transactions for the same market value. I'm assuming this will allow the performance reports to be correct, but they will show the investments in 2 parts -- in both the old and new account. This will be a bit "messy."

Alternatively, could I just change the account number on an (existing) old account to the number at Scottrade and import the new transactions going forward (not importing the BUYS that duplicate what's already there). This would be much easier from a data entry point of view and cleaner from a reporting point of view (but would break any "audit trail" of what happened in which real world account). I assume this would work.

Your thoughts on what might be best?

Elliot

[Mark]

Hi Elliot,

I don't believe the Scottrade transaction files will have all of the 'transfer' details. They probably just appear as buys at a cost of $0. Here's a couple of ideas:

1) Do as you mentioned, and just change the account numbers on your existing accounts. You could record a portfolio memo describing the change in brokerage to help with the audit trail. This is going to be the easiest solution, and will be accurate from a performance point of view.

2) Use the "Transfer Between" dialog and transfer your shares from the old account to a new account. This will take care of closing out the position in your old account, and maintaining proper cost/performance figures in your new account. You must do this separately for each investment, so it will be more work that option #1.

Both options will maintain perfectly accurate records, but option #2 allows you to move everything into a new sub-portfolio. Personally, I would lean towards option #1, but both are valid.

[elliots]

Mark,

I'll use method 1 for most of it, but have a situation where I'm transferring in to an already existing account. For that I'll use method 2, but . . .

It appears that to do a "transfer between" the new investment must already exist in the destination sub-portfolio. When I tried this without creating the new investment first, the transfer in transactions went to another investment in the sub-portfolio. To create a new investment it appears that the initial data does a buy at creation. This means first create new investment, then transfer between, then delete the buy. Is this right? If so, I suggest as an improvement that the "transfer between" have the option (or automatically) create the new investment. Also, if you change it, you might allow the investment creation process to have a transfer in as an option for the initial data.

Elliot

[Mark]

Hi Elliot,

I agree, the 'Transfer Between' dialog should have the ability to create a new destination investment. That is something we'll plan on adding.

For now, create the investment first using "File / New Investment...". When you create the investment, just enter 0 for shares, so there is no initial transaction you need to later delete.