# Quicken User: Trouble of adding a US Security to RRSP Brokerage Account



## TOMAN (Sep 10, 2012)

I recently migrated all my portfolio management and stock tracking into Quicken 2012 Home & Business. However, I found my Canadian dollar based RRSP brokerage account does not allow me to add a US security (for example, MCD-N in NYSE) into the holdings or enter such a buy transaction. I already have the security added into the Security List, of course, it was indicated as a US Stocks in US dollar. When I add a buy transaction, the Security List simply does not display USD based stocks, only CAD based stocks are displayed.

One workaround I have is that: make MCD-N in CAD. It allows me to add it to the account, however, the price can't be updated. I have to manually update it through a CSV file. Does anybody has similar issue or has a better workaround?


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## TOMAN (Sep 10, 2012)

Look like nobody has run into similar issue so far. I also contacted the Quicken Support and got their reply regarding this issue. The Quicken does not support multiple currencies within a single account, therefore, will not be able to do a dynamic conversion of US dollar to Canadian dollar for the security held within your RRSP brokerage account in the bank. Their suggestion is to create a US dollar-based RRSP account and hold US securities in the account within Quicken. The downside to me is that you have to manage two RRSP Quicken accounts, one for CAD and one for USD. If you think about buying European securities, you have to create a third account. 

I have made my suggestions to Quicken support. They have forwarded my suggestions to their development team. Hopefully, the future release will support my requirements of one Quicken account holding multiple currency securities with dynamic conversion to base currency based on the latest exchange rate.


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## Rysto (Nov 22, 2010)

What I do is have two separate accounts in quicken for my rrsp: one in CAD for tracking my Canadian investments and one in USD for tracking US investments. The big disadvantage with this is that tracking dividends is quite painful; I have to manually figure out what exchange rate I was given on the dividend and put in a dummy transfer transaction from the USD account to the CAD account.


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## TOMAN (Sep 10, 2012)

Rysto said:


> What I do is have two separate accounts in quicken for my rrsp: one in CAD for tracking my Canadian investments and one in USD for tracking US investments. The big disadvantage with this is that tracking dividends is quite painful; I have to manually figure out what exchange rate I was given on the dividend and put in a dummy transfer transaction from the USD account to the CAD account.


Thanks Rysto. That is one of reasons I don't like to have two accounts. My workaround allows me to enter transactions in CAD after conversion.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

Quicken's solution of two accounts, one in each currency, has always been the solution for dual currency taxable accounts. I doubt Intuit will ever change what they currently do now. The bigger question is why the OP is not with a discount broker that permits both USD and CAD based RRSP accounts, just like ALL discount brokers already do for taxable accounts, to prevent the conversion of income such as dividends from USD to CAD. As one's RRSP holdings get larger, the exorbitant exchange rates charged by discount brokers will eat into performance returns.


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