On the contrary, Spuds, your posts are pretty illuminating and reflect things that I have learned over time as well. I'm sure others find the comments useful.
As to "Etrade Bank" or "MS Private Bank" interest (non-brokerage), I don't recall this has ever come down with the 1099 downloads. Just interest associated with the brokerage accounts themselves. I think I've always had to manually enter the "bank side" interest. Caveat: I've been up for 8 hours doing research on an unrelated email issue and may not be thinking clearly.
In any event, the advice to always check what was imported vs. what you've already put in is wise indeed, in case they end up adding the Bank-Side interest to the import at some point.
