Guide
Preparing Investment Records for Your CPA
Published 2026-07-24 · Reviewed 2026-07-24 · Topic: investment records for CPA
A practical guide to organizing brokerage statements, transfer paperwork, and confirmed events before you meet with a tax professional—so their time goes to judgment, not sorting.
Why organization matters before the meeting
A CPA's time is generally billed for judgment—interpreting your facts, applying the tax code, and deciding how to file—not for sorting through a folder of unlabeled PDFs. The more your records already show a clear, chronological, source-linked story, the more of that time goes toward analysis instead of assembly.
This is especially true after a broker transfer, an inheritance, or several years of scattered statements, where the underlying facts (what you owned, when, and at what basis) may not be obvious from any single document.
What CPAs typically need to see
Useful materials often include year-end and monthly brokerage statements, trade confirmations, 1099-B and other tax forms, transfer-related correspondence (including ACATS notices), DRS advices where relevant, and any documentation of inherited positions (date-of-death valuations, estate paperwork). Organize by account and by year where possible; note explicitly where a period is missing rather than leaving a silent gap.
If a figure is uncertain—an estimated basis, a partially reconstructed lot—say so plainly rather than presenting an estimate as a confirmed fact. A CPA can work with a known unknown far more easily than with a number that turns out to be wrong.
How Investment Vault fits this workflow
Investment Vault helps you import supported brokerage statements and related PDFs, review extracted candidate events, and keep confirmed events linked to their source documents—processed locally on your device. The export is designed to give a CPA a clearer, source-linked summary of confirmed events and identified gaps, not a chaotic folder of PDFs.
Investment Vault does not prepare, file, or review tax returns, and does not replace your CPA's professional judgment. It organizes the evidence you provide; your CPA still decides what it means for your filing.
Sources
Organize documents with Investment Vault
Import supported brokerage PDFs, review extracted events, and build a source-linked ownership history locally on your device. Beta access is limited.