Looking for a good way to aggregate accounts to track investments

[Cobra9777]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LOL! ...A tip for folks who have assets that cannot be looked up by ticker symbol: Find a proxy ticker symbol and figure out the number of shares for the same dollar amount. For example, suppose one has a collective trust in one's 401(k) which mimics an S&P500 index fund, then just use VFIAX (Vanguard S&P500 index fund) as the ticker symbol with the appropriate number of shares. (But yes, one would have to maintain that manually like Cobra9777 wrote.)

That's why the advantage goes to Personal Capital on that particular item because they allow proxy tickers or manual classification of investment funds with no ticker. You set it up one time and that's it, no manual maintenance. The amount comes in fine at login, just no ticker to feed the analytics. Same for Full-View, but no capability to specify a proxy ticker without going completely manual as you described. Not a huge deal, but ours is a tax-deferred account with reinvested dividends, so the share count creeps up every month. For now, we keep it automated in both systems, and just ignore the GPS portfolio analysis, at least on the equity side. The bond side is fine and a little more detailed than Personal Capital.

[pjigar]

Almost all account aggregation is serviced by Yodlee on the backend. So you want to make sure the front-end is secured with multi-factor authentication. I have been using Bank of America (My Accounts) for over 10 years (yes, that long). Back in the days, BoA issued a "Secure ID Cards" that generated a one-time use code. Now they offer one-time code on your cell phone. Multi-factor authentication was a very crucial feature for me since I was going to give aways passwords to all my account on a single platform.

Multi-factor authentication = two or more of the following authentications
Something you know (password, pass phrase, security picture, etc.)
Something you have (Secure ID, cell phone, etc.)
Something you are (finger print, iris scan, etc.)

[5oneanddone]

MInT works very well.


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[Exrook]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pjigar Almost all account aggregation is serviced by Yodlee on the backend. So you want to make sure the front-end is secured with multi-factor authentication. I have been using Bank of America (My Accounts) for over 10 years (yes, that long). Back in the days, BoA issued a "Secure ID Cards" that generated a one-time use code. Now they offer one-time code on your cell phone. Multi-factor authentication was a very crucial feature for me since I was going to give aways passwords to all my account on a single platform. Multi-factor authentication = two or more of the following authentications Something you know (password, pass phrase, security picture, etc.) Something you have (Secure ID, cell phone, etc.) Something you are (finger print, iris scan, etc.)

Don't be so sure on multi-factor authentication. It isn't as safe as it appears:

Two-Factor Authentication Bypassed in Simple Attacks | SecurityWeek.Com

[jazz4cash]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cobra9777 I've used both Fidelity Full-View and Personal Capital. They both work fine and have some great analytical tools beyond just tracking. Neither is perfect however. I've had to work through various quirks with both. For example, DW's 457B has an S&P 500 index fund that comes over with no ticker. Personal Capital allows you to provide a manual classification. Full-View does not. So in the GPS asset allocation it shows as 'Unknown.' .

We do have some proprietary accounts in Fido that have no ticker but I still classify them with a %stocks, bonds, cash and include the dollar total for the GPS analytical tool. The reports are very good.


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[brewer12345]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunset I have the same issue as OP, but I'm too chicken to give away my login to some place for my various brokerages. Are you using a spreadsheet that pulls in today's values for each share as that I think would the pretty important ?

I do not. When I want an update on portfolio mark to market I simply manually update share prices at the end of the day. Takes all of 5 minutes.

[CaliKid]

I really like personal capital... at least on days everything is up. Good Iphone app too.

[Cobra9777]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazz4cash We do have some proprietary accounts in Fido that have no ticker but I still classify them with a %stocks, bonds, cash and include the dollar total for the GPS analytical tool. The reports are very good.

Could you perhaps explain how this is accomplished?

[jazz4cash]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cobra9777 Could you perhaps explain how this is accomplished?

Sure. Look back to post #13 that describes how to navigate to the "Add Outside Account" button.

The next window requires you to choose between "Full View" (e.g. auto update) and "Manual". I use the manual option.

This selection is glitchy....when I tested this I had to select "Add Outside Account" and "Manual" twice to proceed.

The "Add Outside Account Manually" Window should appear.
This window has two tabs.

• First tab is "Approximate Holdings" and you can enter total dollar value and classify by percentage of stocks, bonds, short term, and other.

• The second tab is Detailed Holdings and it has two sections. The top section is for assets with tickers. The bottom section is marked "Additional Holdings". You can specify dollar amounts for stocks, bonds, short term, and other. This would be useful for an account with a broker that included stocks, bonds, and cash, for example.

Once you have saved the entries, anything with a ticker gets updated when you click edit and then save for that particular account. The non ticker dollar values and percentage must be updated manually.

[convergent]

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I am leaning away from linking accounts because the more I think about it, the more I'm worried that something like Personal Capital might be a big target for hackers. If login credentials for all my accounts are hacked, couldn't a hacker then empty my accounts? Or, is this my being over-paranoid?

So for most of my accounts, I can just put in the ticker symbol and quantity, and Personal Capital will work the magic. But the one account that wouldn't work easily is an old 401K at Fidelity from when I worked at IBM. There are some index funds in there that are unique to the IBM 401K which have outperformed other options available in those categories and have very low expenses. Those funds don't have a ticker, and my understanding is that if I linked accounts, it would track the value, but not wouldn't probably classify them. Given the percentage of my investments in those funds, it would really muck with the usability of the tool I think. Any thoughts on how to handle these funds in a tool like Personal Capital? If I don't link accounts, I think I'd have to keep logging in and changing the value of the shares every time I wanted to look at things, right?

[Cobra9777]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazz4cash Sure. Look back to post #13 that describes how to navigate to the "Add Outside Account" button. The next window requires you to choose between "Full View" (e.g. auto update) and "Manual". I use the manual option. This selection is glitchy....when I tested this I had to select "Add Outside Account" and "Manual" twice to proceed. The "Add Outside Account Manually" Window should appear. This window has two tabs. First tab is "Approximate Holdings" and you can enter total dollar value and classify by percentage of stocks, bonds, short term, and other. The second tab is Detailed Holdings and it has two sections. The top section is for assets with tickers. The bottom section is marked "Additional Holdings". You can specify dollar amounts for stocks, bonds, short term, and other. This would be useful for an account with a broker that included stocks, bonds, and cash, for example. Once you have saved the entries, anything with a ticker gets updated when you click edit and then save for that particular account. The non ticker dollar values and percentage must be updated manually.

OK, so you're using the manual account option. I realize that's an option as I explained earlier. I interpreted your post #25 to mean you were able to specify the classification of an automated Full-View account that came over with no ticker. With Personal Capital, this can be done, as I explained in post #21. But I've never found a way with Fidelity Full-View, other than to manually maintain the account, as you described.

[mpeirce]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brewer12345 I do not. When I want an update on portfolio mark to market I simply manually update share prices at the end of the day. Takes all of 5 minutes.

I'm lazy so I click this link:

http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=aapl+vfsux+vtsax+vwilx&f=l1

http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/...sax+vwilx&f=l1

and it downloads a csv (spreadsheet) file that I can click on, open it in a spreadsheet (I use Numbers) and then copy and paste the daily numbers. I do have to wait until about 6 or 6:30 ET before all the numbers are fully updated - the funds are updated well after close.

Obviously you can edit the link to include the stocks and funds you track, I just included a couple as an example.

[SoReady]

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Originally Posted by Cobra9777 I also like PC's graphic presentation of where my portfolio lands on the efficient frontier and the easy-to-understand rebalancing recommendations.

Where is this? I can't seem to locate it.

Thanks!

[target2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by convergent So for most of my accounts, I can just put in the ticker symbol and quantity, and Personal Capital will work the magic. But the one account that wouldn't work easily is an old 401K at Fidelity from when I worked at IBM. There are some index funds in there that are unique to the IBM 401K which have outperformed other options available in those categories and have very low expenses. Those funds don't have a ticker, and my understanding is that if I linked accounts, it would track the value, but not wouldn't probably classify them. Given the percentage of my investments in those funds, it would really muck with the usability of the tool I think. Any thoughts on how to handle these funds in a tool like Personal Capital? If I don't link accounts, I think I'd have to keep logging in and changing the value of the shares every time I wanted to look at things, right?

Back to your spreadsheet. I have funds in my 401k, and I assign a proxy. Once a month I capture 4 values, paste, and a formula tells me how many shares of the proxy I would have. I stop there, because I just use a spreadsheet.

I used to use Vanguard to aggregate online, but they gave the function to a 3rd party.

[Cobra9777]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cobra9777 I also like PC's graphic presentation of where my portfolio lands on the efficient frontier and the easy-to-understand rebalancing recommendations.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoReady Where is this? I can't seem to locate it. Thanks!

Log in and let the accounts update. Then go to 'Advisor Tools' and click on 'Investment Checkup.' It takes a couple seconds to run the analysis. Then you can either click on the 'Risk & Return' tab or just scroll down. The efficient frontier and rebalancing recommendations are at the bottom of the page.

[SoReady]

Thanks! This is great info.