Shares...

[la lucia]

My mother was left a small amount of shares by my late father, but they've never been put in her name.

They're shares in a well-known bank who acknowledge that they are there, however my mother's solicitor told my mother it wasn't worth transferring them into her name. There's about 500 shares.

How on earth do I as the POA, deal with this or is it not worth bothering?

 

[Philbo]

Hi

Many company shares are handled by organisations such as Equiniti. I know we have a few shares with Lloyds, who use this company.

Quite a few years ago, I transferred half of my shares (sharesave scheme at work) to my wife, as I was a higher rate taxpayer. We both had access to our respective Equiniti accounts but when my wife's dementia got worse recently, I contacted them to see about transferring these shares back to me.

They sent me the necessary forms, before which I had to send them a certified copy of my wife's LPA. The whole process only took a couple of weeks.

Not sure if your father's shares are managed in such a way but worth finding out and contacting whoever administers them?

Good luck.
Phil

 

[oilovlam]

You need to contact the company that holds the shares (probably a broker) and ask them how to proceed. I'm sure they must deal with this a lot. It may be that it is uneconomic to transfer shares that are low in value but you won't know until you find out.

I suppose ultimately if the shares are worth £10 and it costs £25 to transfer the shares then it obviously wouldn't be worth doing it. If it 'only' costs £5 to transfer the shares then it may be worth the effort. Ideally they would transfer the shares for free (probably unlikely because such firms like to make money when they can) and all you would need to send is the appropriate documentation but even documents can involve cost - postage and possibly authentication by a solicitor.

 

[marionq]

We don't have shares anymore as I have been tidying up our affairs for a while now. However I recall that I had a number of small groups of shares not worth cashing in but was able to donate them online to a charity which grouped them altogether to save on fees.

I don't recall the website to do this but someone else might know it.

 

[Toddleo]

I am in the process of sorting out mum's estate as I am her executor. We found a few shares which were part of the Halifax share allocation many years ago, and these were being dealt with by Equinti.
It has been easy to cash these in, they sent through the forms and I provided a copy of the will and my executor paperwork. I received a cheque very quickly - was a bit annoyed that they take £50 admin fee though!!
All straight forward.

 

[oilovlam]

We don't have shares anymore as I have been tidying up our affairs for a while now. However I recall that I had a number of small groups of shares not worth cashing in but was able to donate them online to a charity which grouped them altogether to save on fees.

I don't recall the website to do this but someone else might know it.

To donate shares to charity you need beneficial ownership....which is the issue here I think.

 

[la lucia]

Everyone..... thanks so much for your really useful comments. I'm totally green about shares.

I'm glad I didn't let my mum throw them away as, if they're worth nothing much, I like Marion's suggestion of donating them.

I will ring Equiniti tomorrow and see what they say. I've got an appointment to speak to the bank concerned tomorrow too. They asked me to find out if my father's will went to probate or not and let them know tomorrow.

I also found some ancient shares in a colliery in the former Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, that came via a Grandfather I never met. They are worthless as they were wiped out by sanctions a long time ago and to be honest, I am glad because that's a bit too colonial for me.

However, I did think it would be fascinating to investigate the history one day.

Once again thank you everyone for your help and when I know what's what, I'll update the thread.