Should I print and file each confirmation notice from my
broker? I have been comparing my broker statement against
Bivio but have ignored the confirmation statement. Should I
also compare the confirmation statement against the broker
statement and Bivio?

John:

When our broker provided a separate confirmation notice for
each transaction, I kept a file of the purchase orders for
our current holdings. Then when we had a sale, I would pull
the purchase confirmation and keep the purpuse and sale
together until the end of the year. However, a few years ago
our broker started including several transaction
confirmations on a single page so I abandoned that system.

Today, I basically ignore the transaction confirmations from
the broker, which typically arrive via post a few days after
the transaction is already entered in bivio. Within a day of
the transaction, I receive an email from bivio that autosync
has captured the transaction. I compare the entry in bivio
with my notes from our meeting to insure the accuracy of the
company, number of shares and either buy or sell match. Then
at the end of the month, I compare the transactions in the
broker's monthly statement with the reports prepared from
bivio. That to me is sufficient and I have never had a
discrepency between the bivio and the broker as autosyc has
always performed the data transfer correctly.

For permanent recordingkeeping, I retain the annual 1099
report that contains all the purchase and sale information
to support 1065 preparation. The monthly brokerage
statements are retained only for the years still in the US
and AZ audit period.

Jack Ranby, Treasurer
Grants Partners Investment Club