Shares after death...

Jennyi

This is a grim one. My mother in law has terminal cancer and wants to get her affairs in order. She has started to worry about her shares. She wants to be sure that her son will get her small amount of shares when she dies. She has written it into her will but is now worried about how we actually make the transfer. Can anyone help? I don't yet know what all the shares are other than british gas and centrica. They are all paper, not electronic too. Any help much appreciated, thank you.

barak

Very sorry to hear the reason for your query.

Your mother in law shouldn't worry about this at all. Her executor(s) will have no problem in transferring the shares into the name of her son, by contacting the registrar for each company in which she holds shares. It's a very straightforward process.

CLAPTON

the easiest thing to do is for her to sell the shares now and give the money to the son.

otherwise the ownership will be dealt with under the terms of her will by her executor(s).

if there is no will, then it will be dealt with under the intestancy laws.

the executors or administrators follow the following procedure

write to each company registrar and send a death certificate
this will freeze the shares and they will withhold the dividends.

once probate has been obtained the executors/administrator will send copies of the probate and then the shares and dividends will be transferred to the executors.

jonesMUFCforever

She does not have to sell. She can merely transfer them to her son now using a normal stock transfer form using section L (Long time since I saw one so this might not be totally accurate) stating shares are being transferred without payment. This should avoid stamp duty on them.

Without knowing the exact value of the shares we cannot advice whether capital gains etc or IHT comes into the equation.

barak

CLAPTON wrote: »

the easiest thing to do is for her to sell the shares now and give the money to the son...... if there is no will .....

CLAPTON - I think you are complicating matters. Jennyi has said that her mother in law wants her son to have the shares, and has made a will to that effect. She just wants confirmation that this will happen without any difficulty, and it will.

ejones999 - CGT will then not be relevant - nor is it conceivable that IHT could be if the "small amount of shares" are specified in the Will.

CLAPTON

barak wrote: »

CLAPTON - I think you are complicating matters. Jennyi has said that her mother in law wants her son to have the shares, and has made a will to that effect. She just wants confirmation that this will happen without any difficulty, and it will.

ejones999 - CGT will then not be relevant - nor is it conceivable that IHT could be if the "small amount of shares" are specified in the Will.

just say what you what to say to the OP if you want to.


i dont actually know whats in the will...i'm saying what will happen according to the law ..and in very simple terms

cledor

If she prefers to transfer shares now, they can be gifted to her son. All you need are the appropriate transfer forms. Contact the registrars for each company or check the relevant websites where in some case you may be able to download the required forms. Here is the link for the Centrica webiste http://www.centrica.co.uk/index.asp?pageid=94&question=transfer_shares#main
similarly, for BG Group the form is downloadable here and the details are in para 5 of this page

Jennyi

Thank you everyone - I really appreciate it. I will phone her and give her reassurance.
Jenny

jonesMUFCforever

barak wrote: »

CLAPTON - I think you are complicating matters. Jennyi has said that her mother in law wants her son to have the shares, and has made a will to that effect. She just wants confirmation that this will happen without any difficulty, and it will.

ejones999 - CGT will then not be relevant - nor is it conceivable that IHT could be if the "small amount of shares" are specified in the Will.

Might only be a small amount of shares but who knows what the total estate will consist of?
You only need to have a medium sized house with a relatively small amount of cash and shares to reach the IHT threshold.

Jake'sGran

ejones999 wrote: »

She does not have to sell. She can merely transfer them to her son now using a normal stock transfer form using section L (Long time since I saw one so this might not be totally accurate) stating shares are being transferred without payment. This should avoid stamp duty on them.

Without knowing the exact value of the shares we cannot advice whether capital gains etc or IHT comes into the equation.

I am transferring some assets to my husband to make sure there is no IHT to pay and ran off a Stock Transfer Form the other night. If you look you'll see some brokers charge £5 for the forms when you can print one for free. (I think it was from Lloyds Registrars site or the Revenue).
As I have been a stock market investor for a long time I have already prepared a letter for my executor (daughter) to send to the various registrars to have the shares liquidated. Sounds morbid I know but I have a problem with my heart and want to make it easier for them but not so easy that I have to sell everything now.

jonesMUFCforever

Quote
As I have been a stock market investor for a long time I have already prepared a letter for my executor (daughter) to send to the various registrars to have the shares liquidated. Sounds morbid I know but I have a problem with my heart and want to make it easier for them but not so easy that I have to sell everything now.

Your daughter/executor will have to apply for Probate before being in the position of liqudating the shares.