Get your free $100,000 CFD trading account today
BuyPennyStocks.com - an unbiased resource dedicated to helping investors interested in penny stocks.
Invest in the Future
Advertise with Shareworld now and profit from our future
Click here for more information
My grandfather passed away after a long illness and my grandmother and I have found a lot of shares certificates from about 20 years ago. Are these still valid/does my Grandma now own these? How would we find out more? thanks...
Question
My grandfather passed away after a long illness and my grandmother and I have found a lot of shares certificates from about 20 years ago. Are these still valid/does my Grandma now own these? How would we find out more? thanks - Posted by Sarah
Answer
ANSWER 17th February 2010
Hi Sarah,
There is a service provided by us: http://www.shareworld.co.uk/index.php/resources/free-share-valuation-service.html
All we would ask for is a donation to Shareworld (after you have the answer).
Otherwise you could do it yourself. It can get a bit of a muddle so I always suggest writing all the details of the certificates down on paper or, better stiil, a spreadsheet. Include number of shares, name of company, nominal value, certificate number/s and Registrars name and telephone. Then work through them one by one. First mark off the ones that you can find quoted (say on Yahoo Finance). The ones you cannot find might have gone bust, changed name or been taken over for cash or different shares. Also try and match up correspondence, dividend vouchers etc.
Then you need to contact the registrars of each company (there are only really three major registrars: Computershare, Equiniti and Capita). The registrars name may be on the certificates. Basically you have to agree with the registrars that the shareholding they have on their records is represented by the certificates you hold.You also need any supporting documentation regarding your grandfather's estate. Was there a will? Was Probate or Letters of Administration granted? Who is the legal representative? Possibly your grandmother, being the surviving spouse would be the beneficiary. If the estate was small (not including the marital home) you may have to obtain an Exemption for Small Estates certificate from a solicitor.
The problem is that the registrars will not know who is legally entitled to check share holdings.
What we do is roughly value the protfolio to see if it will be economical for you to spend time & effort to get everything in order. To be honest you usually find that most of these old certificates are worthless (otherwise you would probably find evidence of dividends being received or paid into your grandfather's bank account).
Hi Sarah,
There is a service provided by us: http://www.shareworld.co.uk/index.php/resources/free-share-valuation-service.html
All we would ask for is a donation to Shareworld (after you have the answer).
Otherwise you could do it yourself. It can get a bit of a muddle so I always suggest writing all the details of the certificates down on paper or, better stiil, a spreadsheet. Include number of shares, name of company, nominal value, certificate number/s and Registrars name and telephone. Then work through them one by one. First mark off the ones that you can find quoted (say on Yahoo Finance). The ones you cannot find might have gone bust, changed name or been taken over for cash or different shares. Also try and match up correspondence, dividend vouchers etc.
Then you need to contact the registrars of each company (there are only really three major registrars: Computershare, Equiniti and Capita). The registrars name may be on the certificates. Basically you have to agree with the registrars that the shareholding they have on their records is represented by the certificates you hold.You also need any supporting documentation regarding your grandfather's estate. Was there a will? Was Probate or Letters of Administration granted? Who is the legal representative? Possibly your grandmother, being the surviving spouse would be the beneficiary. If the estate was small (not including the marital home) you may have to obtain an Exemption for Small Estates certificate from a solicitor.
The problem is that the registrars will not know who is legally entitled to check share holdings.
What we do is roughly value the protfolio to see if it will be economical for you to spend time & effort to get everything in order. To be honest you usually find that most of these old certificates are worthless (otherwise you would probably find evidence of dividends being received or paid into your grandfather's bank account).
Have you Joined our Investment Forum?
The moderator of our Question and Answer service is an active member in our investment forum and gets involved with discussions in much greater depth. If your not already a member, you can join here, its completely free and it takes a couple of minutes to register.
Add A Comment