Shares gone missing during transfer

malx

Hi,
Long time lurker, first time poster here.

I wonder if anyone has advice or experience with the following problem. I'm at my wits end and really don't know where to turn.

In November 2012 I requested that my UK stocker broker transfer some stock from a US broker I had. I filled out the forms required and left it to the UK broker to do their thing. The stock left the US broker in January 2014 but it's not arrived with the UK broker. 6 months after the transfer I'm going round in circles with the US broker blaming the UK one, and the UK broker blaming the US.

The US can prove they sent the stock to my account but there is no record of it arriving. It's not been returned to them either so it looks like they've gone.

I've raised a complaint with the UK broker which after investigation they closed due to the fault not being with them so I have referred it to the Ombudsman but i think they'll not be able to help as it involves a US company.

I am told that the stock still belongs to me and it's just a case of tracking it down but I wonder if anyone has had experience f a similar issue or if anyone has advice.

I;m tempted to contact the investor relations team at the company I have stock in but I don't know what else to do.

The longer this drags on I'm losing money on dividends

Any advice would be brilliant.

Thanks.

Malx

Porcupine

malx wrote: »

The longer this drags on I'm losing money on dividends

Are you losing money on dividends? If you owned paper shares they'd send you dividend cheques. If you didn't cash them for a while you'd still have the dividends, just the company would look after them for you until you cashed the cheques. You'd lose compound interest on dividends, but then so would keeping them in cash. And I don't know what happens if the cheques expire - presumably you could ask them to be reissued.

I don't know what happens to dividends in nominee accounts, but they have to go somewhere they don't just disappear. If the shares are in limbo I doubt the nominee can just pocket the cash (particularly since we don't even know who the nominee is at this point). I assume that would need a transaction, and their accounting shouldn't allow them to create credit transactions to themselves for no reason.