Very unlikely, IMO, that it is laziness on Fidelity’s part (or that any large money manager would be lazy on reporting, IMO). Thinking about my Vanguard funds (none IRA-related), in each I have a number of shares (computed to the nearest 0.001 share). The number of shares, barring any deposits or withdrawals, certainly doesn’t change except with distributions, and then only if dividends are reinvested. So if the value per share is computed to cents, my fund value does not change if the value per share to cents does not change.
Just checked on-line. Each fund I own shows (displays) shares to 0.001, value per share to 0.01, total value to 0.01, and for every one the total value is the product of those, rounded to 0.01 (I think always rounded nearer, but maybe I wouldn’t have noticed rounding up or down consistently. Every case was within .01 in total value, anyway.)
The screen also shows change in value per share from previous day. One fund had 0 change in value per share since yesterday, so presumably would have shown no change in total value. But I didn’t look at total value yesterday so can’t be 100% sure.
If it’s a 2040 fund (FFFFX) those two peaks are when it sold for $12.19, and the two troughs are $11.99. Any expenses you have might come out quarterly or annually, and distributions are only once a year for this fund between Christmas and New Years
(That’s just the result of a Google search for FFFFX and then choosing the Yahoo finance site). Generally consistent with what I said about my Vanguard: price per share (on that page, anyway) is to dollars and cents, and no change in holdings unless you make a transaction. (Per Klaymen, distributions from FFFFX are annual. Most Vanguard are monthly or quarterly. Many Vanguard funds have no explicit expense charges if you have your shares in a brokerage account, at least for non-IRA Vanguard accounts. Until this year, there were typically no explicit expenses even if you held your mutual funds outside brokerage accounts, but that changed.)
It’s FFFGX, which actually kind of surprises me because I have no plans to retire until 65 at a minimum, and likely closer to 70, and I’ll only be 59 in 2045. So I should probably change that.
I don’t know much about investing (clearly) - I’d always assumed a target date fund was just a hodge podge of stocks and bonds that are invested on a glide path for you, so I didn’t think of the target date fund itself as having an actual price per share. Now it makes more sense.
It has quite underperformed the S&P over the last five years. It’s only 12% bonds, and about 35% international/emerging markets. Not saying you should do anything about it, just an FYI.
Because the same person would like to give another $36K away on Jan 1.
Here’s the background. My grandmother had Alzheimers, and my 78-year mother is showing the faintest signs. Very early days, she is active and gets out and does things, but couldn’t remember her phone number and can occasionally get confused about things. My sister and I are thinking medium-term about caring for mom. If she were to end up in a state nursing home at some point, the nursing home will look at her assets over the last five years and go after them. My mom has about $250K but lives very frugally and social security and a modest pension meet her needs easily. But the sooner we can divest her of her assets, the less that would be clawed back?
My sister had an idea: what if she entrusts her money to us? Each of us could be “gifted” $18K/yr and invest it on her behalf, and gift it back to her whenever she needs it. We stand to inherit the money 50/50 anyway. From that point I thought it would be simpler if $36K came my way and then only one person would hold the money. Although it might be better if we both had money, because it would be easier to gift more money back to her.
I don’t know if my mom will get behind that idea, but the more I think about it I could just coordinate with my sister and not hold onto it all myself. (I have power of attorney over my mom’s stuff and am just getting hands into things right now). My mom is still in really good shape, but Karen and I have seen this play out before.
If you care, you can find out the general mix of various target funds. The biggest difference with fund target date will be the ratio of stocks vs bonds, with some consideration to average bond duration compared to target date, and some consideration of stock riskiness (and bond quality risk) based on target date: closer to target date, less risk the fund will have. But you will avoid high single-issuer bonds or single company stock in either. Because it is a hodgepodge.
I.e., it’s not exclusively focused on the lump sum value in 2070. It’s pool of assets then is supposed to be assets a new retiree then might want to own, though of course you could liquidate that fund completely then, or earlier, or later.
(I’m not advocating Vanguard. I’m just more familiar with them, and they are generally lower cost. I’ve gotten FAR less satisfied with their service over the past few years, but fortunately I need little service from them.)
If the IRS figures out that this is what you’re doing… then no. That said, the chance of them figuring it out if you aren’t involved in criminal activity or an ugly divorce or otherwise attract the attention of a forensic accountant are very VERY close to 0.
But depending on who is married you can double or even quadruple that amount because each spouse can give / receive $18,000. So one married couple can give another married couple $72,000 without hitting gift tax limits.
Maybe you and your sister can open a joint account at Vanguard or Fidelity or wherever with the understanding that morally this is mom’s money. Then you can manage it but legally it belongs to each of you.
You two will be paying the taxes on the income, so do consider the tax rate differential if you go this route. Are you in a higher or lower bracket than your mom? What about your sister?
Do you trust your sister to not take the money and run? Legally there is nothing stopping her from draining the account and still getting half of what’s left with your mom when your mom dies.
My sister doesn’t have access to the accounts, and yes I trust her 100%. Conceivably we would be getting some of inheritance early, and the tax difference could be our own problem just as if we inherited the money later. We would then just need to track any money spent on mom and share the expense equally.
I think you may be confused between gift tax owed and gift tax filing requirements. She could, if she wished, give you alone $250K right now, and no gift tax would be due now or at her death. She would need to file a gift tax return for 2024, which would lower the amount (still in the millions after $250K) that could be excluded from estate tax calculation upon her death.
ETA: doesn’t change the overall picture for her, but she would still get the benefit of the 18K per person annual exemption even if filing return because gift exceeded 18K. She would report the full 250K gift, but her exemption at death would be reduced by 250K-18K=232K.
For clawback purposes, filing a gift tax return could make the gift more obvious.
My answer is just about federal gift and estate tax. I don’t know any state tax rules.
The same federal gift tax reporting rules would apply to gifts back to her. Current year limit is $18K from 1 person to another with no gift tax reporting. And with reportable gifts going each direction, you lower both parties’ eventual exclusion at death.
Ok, you said you wanted one account that you would manage; I was addressing that. You’ve kind of moved the goalposts a bit.
If your mom gifts you $18,000 and your sister $18,000 then put the $36,000 you each got into a jointly owned Vanguard account that you manage that neither of you touch other than using to pay your mom’s expenses.
You’d have to figure out how you want to handle tax stuff though.
At this point I’d do the 2024 transfer after Christmas so the earnings are negligible. Under $10 and you won’t get 1099’d.
An option for after that is that you and your sister could pull a distribution from the joint account equal to your marginal tax rate times the balance.
Like if you’re in the 24% tax bracket and your sister is in the 22% tax bracket, and the account earns $2,000 in 2025.
Gift yourself $480 and your sister $440 from the account to cover the taxes. The rest is still “mom’s”.
