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MUTUAL FUND NAME CHANGE

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Ray Danahy

09 Sep, 2017 05:48 PM

I have a retirement account with Charles Schwab which contains ETFs and mutual funds. In 2016 the fund name was changed. But it retained the same ticker symbol (EMLC). Typically I download transactions and update security prices once per week. Generally I log onto the Schwab web site (independently of Moneydance) to verify the account balance in moneydance agrees with Schwab. Last week there was agreement TO THE PENNY. This week, after downloading, there was an approximately a $4000 difference, with the moneydance balance being low. When I restored last week's file from backup, the balance was close to the Schwab balance for this week. The difference is probably due to minor price changes during the intervening week.

Upon looking at the portfolio for this account in both the current week's file and last week's restored backup, I find three different fund names for the same fund, all with the ticker symbol EMLC. The 3 fund names are
MKT VCTRS JP MRGN EM LCL CRNCY TEF (EMLC)
VAN ECK MARKET VEC LOCALCUR BND ETF (EMLC)
VANECK VECTORS JP MORGAN EMERGING MKTS LOCCURRENCY BD ETF (EMLC)
The third name in the list is the one currently used by Schwab.

This brings up 2 questions: 1) Is there a way to merge the transaction history and the price history for these securities?
2) Can I start from the one week old backup file and redownload transactions?

1. 1 Posted by feffer777 on 13 Sep, 2017 07:21 PM

   

   From experience, fund name changes can cause issues, so perhaps one of the staff or knowledgeable posters can answer #1.

   You can work from a week old backup. But it might be better to work from a copy of that bu. If you get into a trial and error situation, you'll want an untouched bu.

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2. 2 Posted by rjdanahy on 13 Sep, 2017 10:30 PM

   

   Can you tell me how to work from a copy of the backup file, as opposed to the actual backup file.

   Upon further investigation after my original email to your tech support, I have learned the first mutual fund name and the third mutual fund name are those used by the Schwab website, i.e. Schwab says name 1 below was changed to name 3 below. I don’t know how name 2 crept into the mix. But somehow, relevant recent data is now attached to fundname 2. Again NOTE all three fund names are listed with the ticker symbol EMLC. I could remove the security listed as fundname 2, and then manually enter data under fundname 3. This would require manual entry of only about 12 transactions. But my fear is that deleting the data for fundname 2 (with ticker symbol EMLC) may eliminate all data attached to all securities tagged with the ticker EMLC. Can you tell me if my fear is correct? Do securities have a unique identifier, different from the ticker symbol?

   Ray Danahy

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3. 3 Posted by abqmichaelj on 12 Oct, 2017 05:17 AM

   

   I discovered today that I'm having a similar problem. The fund FDSAX changed name from "Sunamerica new FOC div star a" to AIG Focused Div Strategy A. I would really like to use the new name in MoneyDance so that I can more easily validate my funds. Additionally, somewhere (assuming after the name change) the number of shares that MoneyDance thought I had grew more quickly than the number of shares I have. This may be because I have that fund in two different portfolios and MoneyDance may be messing that up.

   1) How do I change the name of the fund
   2) Is the name difference causing the value synchronization problem?

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4. 4 Posted by Raymond Danahy on 13 Oct, 2017 12:42 AM

   

   My situation was unique, and may not be of any help to you. I bought a mutual fund in a Schwab retirement account as FUNDNAME1. For an unknown reason, on a certain date, Schwab started reporting transactions for this fund under a similar, but different name (FUNDNAME2). Later on, the fund actually underwent a name change to FUNDNAME3. Schwab reported this name change transaction as two separate transactions: SELL all shares of FUNDNAME 2 at X dollars per share; then BUY Y shares of FUNDNAME3 at Y dollars per share. Because of all the transactions reported under the fictitious name FUNDNAME2, my account balance and the number of shares of FUNDNAME3 were incorrect. When I figured out that FUNDNAME2 was causing the problem, I was able to go back paste in FUNDNAME1 for all instances where FUNDNAME2 appeared, that fixed all my problems with shares and account balances for that account.

   So, I think if you enter 2 transactions (manually if necessary) to cover the fund name change, that may solve your problem. Enter a SELL transaction for all shares of OLDNAME and then a BUY transaction for shares of NEWFUND. I presume that the number of shares and the share price was the same for OLDNAME and NEWNAME on the date of the name change. Changing the name of a mutual fund should not change the value of your holdings in that fund.

   I hope that helps,
   Ray Danahy

   PS: Moneydance tech support was no help in solving my issue. Good Luck

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5. System closed this discussion on 12 Jan, 2018 12:50 AM.