Quicken finance software- Anyone still use it? Need to manage a trust

[Neilk]

Hello,

My financial situation got a bit more complicated recently with my brother's passing and him leaving us all individual trusts. He appointed me as executor so I will have to manage 3 nearly identical trusts for my two brothers and myself. I was thinking about using Quicken for reports and tracking expenses etc. I also have access to a financial advisor, but wanted to managing it myself for a while before punting to an outside firm to only pay more fees.

Any thoughts on best practices? Will Quicken work well enough for my purposes? I will be talking to a few people about this, but thought the Pelican Brain trust would be my least biased place to go for great advice.

Thanks,
Neil

[GH85Carrera]

QuickBooks may be a better option.

I use Quicken for my personal checkbook, and savings accounts. It does fine.

For my business QuickBooks is better. It is designed for companies, and works great.

For sure, talk to your CPA. Get his input before you devote too much time with anything. Make sure you have everything set up for the proper tax filings, and legal issues.

I have been using Quicken for my personal finances since 1989.

[scottmandue]

We used a lawyer but only because that is how my dad set it up, there are lawyers that specialize in trusts. There are only two of us and four properties, even at that it looked kinda complicated... but I suspect that is just because that is the way my dad set it up. I showed the trust to my tax guy and he said it was way over done.

[Sooner or later]

If it is a decent amount of money I wouldn't do it myself.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Neilk

My financial situation got a bit more complicated recently with my brother's passing and him leaving us all individual trusts. He appointed me as executor so I will have to manage 3 nearly identical trusts for my two brothers and myself.

Trusts generally, and my wife is going through this, have specific guidance and objectives: Are you both the executor of the Will and the Trustee for all three Trusts?

The rules are usually clear given specific kinds of Trusts and the beneficiary's, etc.

GH85 has it exactly right...as the executor and Trustee, getting council now should be an allowable expense and is very important, critical in my mind.

Involve your Brothers if that is a reasonable approach.

One other thing. My wife was reluctant to charge the estate/trust for her time until the lawyer said that she must: Document every hour, keep spotless records and pay yourself for your efforts, it is the only way the court will take you seriously should there be issues.

She uses Excel but is a wizard.

My wife charges the estate/trust the royal sum of $20 scooters an hour and pays for help when appropriate.

[john70t]

(I'll just drop this kindling ten feet away from the fire)

Do search for "trustee rules in Dallas, TX"
There will be state and maybe even specific city rules for whatever is permitted and what needs to be disclosed when and with time-frames limitations. etc.

The thieving bank may only release family funds within 30 days after passing or some other b.s.
Dad may have accounts stashed away nobody knew of.
Or some other outstanding debt real or imaginary.

I assume everything is on the up-and-up with your brothers, but major (costly for all) disagreements can and do happen when emotions are involved.

[grant lyon]

+1 check with your CPA to find what he can import and his preferences. I generate excel tax schedule reports out of Quicken because Quicken is what I know. Then the accountant manually re-enters numbers into his acctg software, because his software can not (AFAIK) import directly useful quicken files. However, from some research on-line I see the accountant's software can import Quickbooks files directly with the correct plug-ins for his software package. From what I have figured out, with Quickbooks an accountant can generate templates/structure you would use to enable and facilitate the data exchange process. If it weren't for the Quickbook's learning curve and sunk effort/cost, I might switch at some point.