Just found share certificates from a deceased family member

Fanny_Upcrutch

I really need some help on this please. My father in law passed away 8 years ago. My husband has recently found some shares in certificate form for dragon oil. How on earn do we go about selling these? I have also found out that the hubby's mum was in charge of dealing with his financial affairs after his death but she never went to probate as he didn't leave anything apart from cash in the house and at the time she had undiagnosed early onset dementia.....this means it's all a bit of a mess and I haven't the first idea how to start sorting this mess out. I needed help!

So, can these shares be transferred as he left everything to his wife or must the be sold at the market value of the day he died? How do I go about starting to sort through everything?

xylophone

Did he leave a will?
http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/probate/obtain-probate/need-probate
might also be of interest re joint tenancy of house and joint assets.
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_family/family_index_ew/who_can_inherit_if_there_is_no_will___the_rules_of_intestacy.htm mght be relevant if there was no will.
http://www.dragonoil.com/Investors/Retail_Shareholder_Centre/Default.aspx?id=1235 might be of interest re shareholding.
http://www.capitaregistrars.com/

alanq

Firstly contact the registrars and try to find out if the shareholding still exists. If the certificate was reported lost a duplicate may have been issued and later sold. If the company was restructured in some way perhaps those shares were replaced with a different certificate which was then sold.
http://www.dragonoil.com/Contact_Us/Default.aspx?id=11

If the certificate is valid where have the dividends been going for recent years? Is there a bank account that you are unaware of or have cheques been sent to an old address?

When my father died my Mother got some Abbey National shares transferred by contacting the registrar without going to probate but this was only possible below a certain holding value. (£5000?)

Is MiL's dementia such that she does not have capacity to sell the shares? If so then whoever is taking care of her financial affairs will have to be involved which will complicate matters.

The shares, if they exist, once transferred can be sold at current market price. The market price on the date of FiL's death will determine what if any taxes have to be paid from his estate and what capital gains tax (if any) the person inheriting the shares has to pay.

sabretoothtigger

Im amazed by all these people who owned DGO from years ago, they did very well apparently
They even pay a dividend now, they should send you a cheque if you ask

Fanny_Upcrutch

Hubby said no, he didn't leave a will. Thanks for the links, I have had a nosey and I understand all of them except for the last one......I assume that's the service we would use for selling the shares? lso it says that dragon oil is valued at £639 . Is that per share? I Have no idea how all this works , I hate feeling out of my depth !

sabretoothtigger

639 pennies not pounds. Its usa shares which are quoted in dollars, we always quote in pennies

They used to 16p a share, thats 3000% growth

Fanny_Upcrutch

Mother in law has received some checks but just left them in a drawer. She is still in charge of her own affairs but her eldest sne overlooks everything to make sure the bills are paid. It started with him having a thousand shares and then he was given another thousand apparently so that totals two thousand shares as far as the hubby is aware.

PasturesNew

You don't have to sell them, you can transfer them into the MIL's name as they became hers once he died.

atush

If the chekcs are old and uncashed you will need to see if the registrars will reissue them.

xylophone

"Mother-in- law has received some cheques but just left them in a drawer.." In whose name are these cheques drawn? How often are they being received?
Are they in fact dividend cheques or cheques for sale proceeds....?
As for transferring them to MIL, you'll need to have regard to the intestacy information above?
If the cheques and the shareholdings are still in FIL's name and MIL is non compos mentis someone is going to have to see about POA if there isn't one in place?
http://alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=154