2020 Year-End Distributions

[PaunchyPirate]

The Vanguard cap gains estimates have been posted.

https://advisors.vanguard.com/insights/article/preliminarycapitalgainsestimates

 

[audreyh1]

Direct link to Vanguard cap gains estimates PDF:
https://personal.vanguard.com/pdf/RTPYEEST_112020.pdf

 

[audreyh1]

Have any of you ever seen Fidelity post end of year dividend estimates? This is a big missing piece for me. I thought they used to.

 

[scrabbler1]

Have any of you ever seen Fidelity post end of year dividend estimates? This is a big missing piece for me. I thought they used to.

We have discussed this before. It wasn't too long ago, maybe 2 or 3 years, when Fidelity posted year-end dividends among their year-end distributions. I was not pleased to see Fidelity stop posting them, either.

One of my bond funds, the one which generates most of my steady income, sometimes had what I call "spikes" in its dividend income. Back in 2009-2011, I had these spikes which amounted to getting 2 months worth of dividend income in December. Fidelity wasn't posting them among their annual estimates back then, so while I was happy to get the added income, it interfered with my estimated taxes because it was too late to make an added state estimated tax payment by 12/31 I could deduct on that year's federal return.

I learned in 2010 that this spike could be learned before the end of the year because it appeared as a single, one-day increase in the fund's Daily Mil Rate around the 15th of December. So, in 2011, I was able to ask Fidelity for Daily Mil Rates during December and see I would receive a larger monthly dividend a few weeks before 12/31 and adjust accordingly.

These spikes disappeared for several years until I saw in the year-end distributions for 2018 a special dividend (the last time I saw this appear IIRC). However, with the new tax law starting in 2018, it didn't matter because I was taking the Standard Deduction. The spike dividend was paid out a few days before the end of the year, unlike in 2009-2011 when it was combined with the regular monthly one. It was not part of the Daily Mil Rate, either.

I had a spike in 2019, too, also paid out a few days before the end of the year. The spike was pretty small, though.

I have told Fidelity reps including my own Account Executive that I don't really like being blindsided by special distributions which have no warning anywhere, but they have fallen on deaf ears. ("We're sorry for the inconvenience blah blah blah...…")

This is one of several ways Fidelity has been slowly eroding my goodwill toward them......

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Schwab posted theirs here:

https://www.schwabfunds.com/resources/distributions-and-tax-center

Edit to add:

It gives the estimated percentages of long and short term capital gains, but doesn't give the estimated dividends. For example, the first line is for the schwab total stock market index fund SWTSX, and has dashes in each column. However, my account shows an estimated ~$10k dividend in December.

 

[audreyh1]

We have discussed this before. It wasn't too long ago, maybe 2 or 3 years, when Fidelity posted year-end dividends among their year-end distributions. I was not pleased to see Fidelity stop posting them, either.

I thought it had been until recently because I always made spreadsheets for end of year estimates. It’s very unfortunate that they stopped. This year I estimated based on the ratio of early year div distributions versus Dec div distributions, and they are substantial.

 

[big-papa]

ishares has their capital gains estimates up now: https://www.ishares.com/us/capital-gains-distributions

cheers

 

[simple girl]

Was it mentioned here already?

Vanguard says 11/16 they will publish cap gains estimates for their funds and ETFs, and on 12/9 this will be updated plus income estimates and qualified dividend percentages as well.

https://institutional.vanguard.com/...commentary/article/NewsYrEndDistributions2020

That's the only one I have left.

Is anyone willing to teach me how to estimate 4th quarter dividends using whatever Vanguard publishes? I've never had to do it before. I tried to research it online and just became more confused.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

It looks like Vanguard’s updated 2020 Cap Gains estimates and the new December dividends distributions has been released.

https://advisors.vanguard.com/iwe/pdf/taxcenter/FAFYEEST.pdf

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Is anyone willing to teach me how to estimate 4th quarter dividends using whatever Vanguard publishes? I've never had to do it before. I tried to research it online and just became more confused.

I just posted a link to the estimates from Vanguard above.

Look up your fund/etf and multiply the per share dollar value in the document times the number of shares you own. That would be your dividend or capital gain estimate for that fund.

 

[MichaelB]

It looks like Vanguard’s updated 2020 Cap Gains estimates and the new December dividends distributions has been released.

https://advisors.vanguard.com/iwe/pdf/taxcenter/FAFYEEST.pdf

Thank you.

 

[audreyh1]

Something is missing. I can’t find VBIRX. It certainly has an income distribution this month. Is the advisors list a separate set? There must be a non advisors list somewhere.

 

[simple girl]

It looks like Vanguard’s updated 2020 Cap Gains estimates and the new December dividends distributions has been released.

https://advisors.vanguard.com/iwe/pdf/taxcenter/FAFYEEST.pdf

Aha! There it is! I was hunting for it and couldn't find it. Thank you!

I just posted a link to the estimates from Vanguard above.

Look up your fund/etf and multiply the per share dollar value in the document times the number of shares you own. That would be your dividend or capital gain estimate for that fund.

Makes total sense; just crunched the numbers and I see we'll be getting about 90% of what we received Dec 2019. That's very helpful to know, as I am planning to do a Roth conversion, so now we can convert a bit more.

Thanks so much!

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Something is missing. I can’t find VBIRX. It certainly has an income distribution this month. Is the advisors list a separate set? There must be a non advisors list somewhere.

Hmmm. I will confirm that I also don't see your VBIRX in the document. I'm not sure what the problem is. I also cannot find the distribution document on a non-Advisor portion of Vanguards site. I found this link using a posting on the Bogleheads.com site. It sure seems like it would be an entire listing, but I don't really know for sure.

 

[audreyh1]

It might be that they haven’t posted it yet, because I found the page but no link yet.

 

[RunningBum]

Wow, those dividend numbers are a lot lower than last year! Between that and getting out of a higher dividend paying fund, I could qualify for a CSR plan for next year, based on these numbers. I'm going to have to seriously consider that. It would mean little or no Roth conversion.

 

[RunningBum]

^^ Whoops, missed adding a column for a new holding in my spreadsheet. Found it while filling out an early TurboTax return. I'm still well under 400%FPL but not 250%. Too far off to estimate my 2021 MAGI at 250% to get a silver CSR plan. Ah well, I was never counting on that.

 

[JoeWras]

For the Vanguard folks. Ya'll probably know this, but I found it really handy to go to:

"My Accounts" --> "Tax Center" --> "Quarterly" (TAB)

There, they present you a nice table of income and ST/LT gains by quarter and total, along with a reminder from last year.

For my estimate spreadsheet, I can easily plug those numbers in, then add the gains estimate data to finish Q4.

 

[JoeWras]

Something is missing. I can’t find VBIRX. It certainly has an income distribution this month.

Also missing is the settlement, VMFXX. I suspect they can't compute the really short term stuff yet? You can throw an estimate in there from last month's or quarter's result.

Wow, those dividend numbers are a lot lower than last year!

Indeed! I filled some slack with some gain harvesting.

 

[FrankiesGirl]

Fidelity's list is missing information considering they usually pay out dividends on their funds around now and used to be much more detailed and included estimates for most all their Fido funds besides... very concerned at this point. I really do want to top up my cash bucket if there's room but they're not leaving me much time to figure it out.

https://www.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/information/distributions#/?table=actuals

Am I missing information for the fidelity total market index fund (FSKAX) that someone can point me to? This is the only fund I hold in my taxable account, so I'd love to get the usual dividend distribution (should have fallen today if they keep to the past years' pattern of the second Friday of December)

https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/summary/315911693

I don't see anything other than April's dividend distribution listed, and they haven't paid cap gains for a solid year... (not complaining about the cap gains, but the dividend should either be paid or at least state they're paying or not by now)

 

[scrabbler1]

Fidelity's list is missing information considering they usually pay out dividends on their funds around now and used to be much more detailed and included estimates for most all their Fido funds besides... very concerned at this point. I really do want to top up my cash bucket if there's room but they're not leaving me much time to figure it out.

https://www.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/information/distributions#/?table=actuals

Am I missing information for the fidelity total market index fund (FSKAX) that someone can point me to? This is the only fund I hold in my taxable account, so I'd love to get the usual dividend distribution (should have fallen today if they keep to the past years' pattern of the second Friday of December)

https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/summary/315911693

I don't see anything other than April's dividend distribution listed, and they haven't paid cap gains for a solid year... (not complaining about the cap gains, but the dividend should either be paid or at least state they're paying or not by now)

Earlier in this thread, Audreyh1 and I lamented about how Fidelity stopped including dividend estimates among its year-end distributions a few years ago. This includes an on-again, off-again dividend I described as a year-end "spike" dividend in one of my bond funds which at one time appeared in the fund's daily Mil Rate (but not any more).

 

[FrankiesGirl]

Earlier in this thread, Audreyh1 and I lamented about how Fidelity stopped including dividend estimates among its year-end distributions a few years ago. This includes an on-again, off-again dividend I described as a year-end "spike" dividend in one of my bond funds which at one time appeared in the fund's daily Mil Rate (but not any more).

Thank you for the clarification. I had read the discussion and hoped it was just for the active managed or maybe just bond funds, but apparently it is most all the fido funds. That's disappointing and agree about the goodwill fading.

I'd say they stopped reporting them as of end of 2018, as I was paying close attention in 2018 and that surprise payout of cap gains the last day or two of the year really upset me as it was without warning/and bumped me up a level in earnings as well.




ETA: I was right - they were planning on dividends today. Just logged in to to see for FSKAX: A dividend of 1.327 per share, declared on 12/11/2020, will be posted to your account on 12/14/2020. Still don't see why they couldn't have posted even earlier this week but now get to worry about possible cap gains (unlikely, but still possible I guess).

 

[meierlde]

In the case of vbrix you see on the bottom of the distributions panel on the web site that it has a .09% of face vale capital loss for the year in realized gains, and a 2.83% unrealized gain. So since these invest in short term instruments rather than cashing them in the manager may just wait until the instruments expire.

 

[audreyh1]

In the case of vbrix you see on the bottom of the distributions panel on the web site that it has a .09% of face vale capital loss for the year in realized gains, and a 2.83% unrealized gain. So since these invest in short term instruments rather than cashing them in the manager may just wait until the instruments expire.

What I was looking for was the dividend estimate. I could already see that it had no capital gains estimated.

 

[audreyh1]

Fidelity's list is missing information considering they usually pay out dividends on their funds around now and used to be much more detailed and included estimates for most all their Fido funds besides... very concerned at this point. I really do want to top up my cash bucket if there's room but they're not leaving me much time to figure it out.

https://www.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/information/distributions#/?table=actuals

Am I missing information for the fidelity total market index fund (FSKAX) that someone can point me to? This is the only fund I hold in my taxable account, so I'd love to get the usual dividend distribution (should have fallen today if they keep to the past years' pattern of the second Friday of December)

https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/summary/315911693

I don't see anything other than April's dividend distribution listed, and they haven't paid cap gains for a solid year... (not complaining about the cap gains, but the dividend should either be paid or at least state they're paying or not by now)

Well we should find out this evening as I’m pretty sure today is the ex-div date along with several other index funds.