[GNC] How to record the transfer of securities directly, from one broker to another

[Mike Brady]

I've gone through many broker changes and transfers from a company DRIP 
to a broker over the years when my shares moved over with no 
significant* transaction. I didn't even have to re-title the account (or 
the spreadsheet file, back in the Days Before Gnucash), since the parent 
is simply titled "Individual Stocks" with the actual broker tracked in 
the account description.  It's simply a change of the street name 
associated with the stocks. Of course, I'm a **very** small investor, so 
my bookkeeping and tax situations are not very significant - I treat the 
individual stock investing as essentially entertainment.

IRA and 401K situations are likely different, involving rollover issues 
that can be confusing. I had a couple of those when leaving a company 
and trying to roll a small 401K into a IRA. Caught and fixed it before 
taxes were filed (outside of Gnucash, with appropriate transactions then 
recorded in GNC).

* "Significant" -- many of those transfers, and also some corporate 
spinoffs/breakups/mergers, throw off small amounts of cash, that can 
trigger capital gains/losses, when fractional shares (that accumulate 
when reinvesting dividends) are liquidated. Transfers of shares between 
brokers usually have to be in whole numbers. My biggest challenge with 
those little bits of cash is figuring out what the basis is, especially 
for stocks that I've held for a long time (more than 10 years) - but 
that's beyond Gnucash issues.

-Mike B

On 11/20/2024 9:00, gnucash-user-request at gnucash.org wrote:

> Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2024 08:15:13 -0600
> From: David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com>
> To: "sunfish62 at yahoo.com" <sunfish62 at yahoo.com>
> Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Subject: Re: [GNC] How to record the transfer of securities directly
> 	from one broker to another
> Message-ID:
> 	<CADYgSbnVdZ3vGk8M5Qf3NoSeCHLDhzeyRg36uvDn-8zo3DxAUA at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> Thanks for the suggestions so far.  I had not thought of the re-parent
> option.  That would be quite easy, although I had embedded a hint at the
> broker name in the names of the original set of security accounts, which
> would complicate that process a bit if I use it.  I know that there is no
> need in GnuCash to accurately reflect all the details required to be 100 %
> legal with the government regulations.  The new brokerage identifies each
> transaction as 'Transfer of Assets ACAT Receive' and they do include a
> value for each security, but I am sure there is further documentation not
> shown that could (and would) be used for regulation compliance.  This case
> is a roll-over IRA and so the regulations are a little different than for
> other types of accounts.  I think the biggest problem might be how to
> handle GnuCash reports about the history with the previous brokerage after
> the re-parenting.  A big part of my final decision will be how much work
> does it take to implement it and whether details that I consider important
> are included.  Maybe I would need to create a separate set of 'Before'
> books to use for some reports.
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 20, 2024 at 5:42?AM sunfish62 at yahoo.com <sunfish62 at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Imight just create the base brokerage account and reparent the individual
>> stock and mutual fund accounts into the new brokerage.
>>
>> Otherwise,  zero dollar transactions sending shares only? Note that this
>> would likely affect capital gains calculations...
>>
>> ?David T.?
>>
>> On Nov 20, 2024, 9:19?AM, at 9:19?AM, David Carlson <
>> david.carlson.417 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I opened a new brokerage account at a different provider and I asked
>>> them
>>> to transfer all the securities directly from the previous provider
>>> without
>>> selling and buying.  This was allowed, I think, because they were all
>>> held
>>> in street name at the previous provider.  They are both US brokerage
>>> houses.
>>> I do not see that scenario covered in the Tutorial.  How should I cover
>>> this in GnuCash?  I presume that I need to create a group of accounts
>>> similar to the old set for the new broker, but then how do I move the
>>> securities without selling and buying?
>>>
>>> --
>>> David Carlson
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