Doing the (Financial) Math....

October 22, 2010 1:59 PM

Wish-I'd-kept-it-now-Filter: How can I calculate capital gains/losses on an individual stock I want to sell if I didn't keep the monthly/annual statements?

Hey folks,

I'm looking at selling some individual stocks in the next few months that I have owned since 2001.

I just realized that I didn't keep all of the monthly statements, and am not sure how I can calculate any capital gains/losses without that information. What's the best way to get that information? I'm assuming it's best to contact the companies, but thought I'd ask the hivemind. Also, is there often a fee associated with getting that information? I mean, I asking for potentially 9 years of data.

Thanks everyone. I'll be keeping statements in the future.....

posted by anitanita to Work & Money (5 answers total)

What are you looking for? All you need is your adjusted tax basis in the stock, which generally would be the amount you paid for it. Were you in some sort of DRIP, so that you bought different blocks of stock along the way? Stock splits etc. will be available on Google. Did you hold these shares through a broker? If so, they should be able to materialize the relevant data pretty easily.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 2:07 PM on October 22, 2010

Did you reinvest the dividends? Then the broker or holding company should have the relevant records. If you merely held it then assume your purchase price, frankly you can estimate it if your records are gone, is your basis.
posted by caddis at 2:45 PM on October 22, 2010

If the stock was held through a broker, that's who you want to contact, not the companies. The broker should have records, though admittedly, these things can get messed up if your broker had a merger or two over these nine years.

Unless you were reinvesting dividends (through a DRIP, I presume), you don't actually need the monthly statements, just the initial purchase price.
posted by bsdfish at 3:24 PM on October 22, 2010

As everyone else has pointed out, you haven't told us enough. If you simply purchased the stock on one date and held it, you have several sources of information. First, you can get the price that the stock closed at on the day you purchased it by contacting the underlying company, contacting your broker or Googling it. You will not have the commission and fees paid, but you will be pretty close to your cost basis.

If you have been reinvesting the dividends you could contact the administrator of the plan that is reinvesting for you. This might be the company, your broker or...?
posted by Old Geezer at 5:08 PM on October 22, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks for the responses guys. I would have responded earlier, but didn't have computer access. You all pretty much guessed correctly considering how little information I thought to share: they are DRIP investments, and I was reinvesting dividends, so there is no broker to call.

I have been purchasing additional shares on and off over the years. It sounds like my next step is still to contact the administrator, which is either Shareowner Services or SunGard Investor Accounting Systems.

Thank you Admiral Haddock, caddie, bsdfish and Old Geezer, for taking the time. Greatly appreciated.
posted by anitanita at 9:51 PM on October 22, 2010