[GNC] Rollover IRA and brokerage account

[Jim DeLaHunt]

Tom:

On 2024-01-29 12:34, Tom Balazs wrote:
> I want to add accounts to my chart of accounts.
> I need to add a Rollover IRA (which is a cash account).
> And I need to add a Trust, which is a brokerage account (the financial
> institution calls it a Resource Management Account)
> On the institution's website I can see that it contains mutual funds,
> corporate notes and bonds, and a "cash money fund".
>
> How do I add that into my chart of accounts?...

Have you taken a look at the /GnuCash Tutorial and Concepts Guide/ 
<https://www.gnucash.org/viewdoc.phtml?rev=5&lang=C&doc=guide> 
recently?  Consider reading Chapter 9. *Investments*, especially section 
9.2 *Setting Up Accounts*.

> Would the rollover IRA go under "Current Assets" and just be an account like a checking account?
That is not how I would do it. Your rollover IRA portfolio is an 
investment, so it makes more sense to me to put it under the 
Assets:Investments: part of your accounts tree.
> In my COA I see
> Investments: Brokerage Account
> - Bond
> - Market Index
> - Mutual Fund
> - Stock
>
> Would those accounts be the place to put the mutual funds, corporate notes and bonds, and the "cash money fund".

The approach described in section 9.2 is that your rollover IRA and your 
Trust would each be account under Assets:Investments: . Then each of the 
Rollover IRA and Trust GnuCash accounts would have a sub-account for 
Cash, and sub-accounts for each stock, bond, mutual fund, or security 
held as part of that brokerage account.

You will also want Expense GnuCash accounts for taxes, for fees and 
commissions you pay to the brokerages, and Income GnuCash accounts for 
interest, dividends, capital gains, and so on. Chapter 9 of the Guide 
explains more of this.

> I will be selling assets and I need to track what is sold, at what price, taxes paid, and fees paid....

It seems to me that this is only 10% a GnuCash question, and 90% an 
accounting question. Do you have an accountant who advises you on how to 
structure of your financial information, and how to get useful answers 
from it? That accountant can help you understand how to structure your 
accounts independent of GnuCash. Then you only need to figure out how to 
implement that structure using GnuCash tools.

Remember that you can rearrange the structure of your GnuCash accounts 
tree without losing transactions. If you start off putting the rollover 
IRA GnuCash account under the Current Accounts GnuCash account, you can 
decide later to move it under the Investments GnuCash account. It will 
take little effort and cause little disruption.

Finally, I think this advice from section 9.2 of the Guide is worth 
bearing in mind:

> *Tip*: There really is no standard way to set up your investment 
> account hierarchy. Play around, try different layouts until you find 
> something which divides your investment accounts into logical groups 
> which make sense to you. 
Best regards,
       —Jim DeLaHunt