Copy then close investment, vs transfer between?

[Bruce]

We closed an account at one broker and moved the assets to another. Due to a death, all the cost basis are the same date and only 2 years ago (low transaction counts). However, the mutual funds with reinvestment of earnings have ~24 transactions, which are 24 tweaks to cost basis. Which are opportunities to manage capital gains when doing rebalancing. At the receiving broker, they have the correct total cost basis but the transaction history was not given by the sending firm. Which brings me to Fund Manager.

Transfer Between wizard sure looks nice, but creates a new investment with the correct total cost basis with the correct acquisition date (assuming I enter it correctly; doesn't seem to be imported though it's there in the data), but it loses all the transaction history. The practical impact is I lose my ability to do any sales method other than average cost. Did I do something incorrectly?

It seems the better method is to copy the investment from the old to the new broker, and then "close" the investment in the old account. Full history is preserved. The account values seemed to update correctly when I closed it. What's wrong with doing it this way (i.e. what unintended ramifications are there?)

[Bruce]

Update: Rereading the transfer wizard function manual, it says " There will be one Transfer In transaction for each lot transferred, to maintain the original tax cost basis value AND DATE." (emphasis mine).

It didn't. It posted each lot to the new file, effective the transfer date.

[Mark]

Hi Bruce,

You can either use the "Transfer Between" wizard, or simply change the account number/etc. The later is probably easier if you moved the whole account. The Transfer Between wizard will create one "Transfer Out" in the original investment, and one "Transfer In" transaction for each open lot at the time of transfer. Please note, there are 2 dates for a Transfer In. If you're looking at it in the Data Register the date shown is the "Transferred In Date", but there is also a "Tax basis: Date Acquired" date. If you edit one of the transfers, you should see this date acquired date be the purchase date of the transferred lot.

I would try and just rename and change the account number on the sub-portfolio. This is much easier, and maintains the history in a little easier to view manner. The tax basis values/dates are retained with the transfer between as well.

The benefit of using Transfer Between is you have a record of when the shares moved brokers. It comes at a cost of a bit more data though. It is really up to you. You could just put a note in the sub-portfolio memo, reminding you when the account moved.

[MartyP]

Hi Mark-
I used "transfer between" to move an investment and its historical transactions from a source subportfolio to a destination subportfolio. I understand the transactions in the data register resulting from this action are dated with the transfer date and the tax basis date can be seen in the edit dialog. However if an investment performance report is created using the data in the destination subportfolio, it doesn't represent the actual performance over time due to the dates of transferred transactions all being the same. The same inaccuracy applies to other reports such as subportfoliio performance that rely on the same data.

What do I need to do to get accurate investment performance reports?
Thanks!
Marty

[Mark]

Hi Marty,

If you use the Transfer Between wizard you are "transferring" as of that date, so the history prior to this date remains in the source investment(s). If you want to transfer the whole history, you can move an investment instead of transferring the shares as of a given date. To move an investment, just use drag/drop with the Portfolio Editor.

[MartyP]

Perfect explanation and suggestion! I hadn't used drag and drop in many years. Thanks for the reminder Mark!