Selling inherited shares

Tim1111

I need some urgent advice to avoid some exorbitant share dealing costs. I was lucky enough to inherit a large number of shares (£250k) in a single UK company. I know very little about shares, so went with the solicitors advice at the time and they are held with Computershare.

I now want to sell £200k of the shares to buy a house but it seems Computershare charge 1% to sell the shares - so I'll be looking at a £2k charge on a single sale, that can't be right can it?!

Is there anyway to avoid this? I've seen online platforms offering trade charges of just £10-£15 (much better than paying £2k!). Can I just transfer them out of Computershare to one of these platforms and sell them straight away? Is it straight-forward to do? Would Computershare charge me to do this?

Any/all help and advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Tim.

george4064

You definitely can transfer the shares from ComouterShare to a cheaper broker/platform.

Are your shares with ComputerShare held in certificate or electronic format? (Most likely to be in electronic format)

I found the following cost information regarding ComputerShare; https://www-uk.computershare.com/investor/faqs2.asp?bhjs=1&fla=0&category=%7B4FB89024-A617-4EC5-B1FC-28E0DCE47311%7D

If you hold it in electronic form (in CREST), it will cost you £17.50 to transfer your holding in that one individual stock. I only know with Hargeaves Lansdown (but I'm 99% sure it's the same with all other decent brokers) that you can transfer them in for free (no transfer charge from HL, but still incur ComputerShare's transfer out fee) and sell them for online for a fixed commission of £11.95

Tim1111

Hi George. Thanks for replying. I'm assuming they are held in electronic format as I don't have a certificate, or can they be held in certificate with them (sorry new to this)?

I did see the info in the link but couldn't find anything on charges to transfer shares away from them.

Maybe the best thing would be to phone someone like Hargreaves Lansdown (based on MSE best buy) and ask their advice for transferring to them? I'm hoping they would be able to guide me through the process.

george4064

Tim1111 wrote: »

Hi George. Thanks for replying. I'm assuming they are held in electronic format as I don't have a certificate, or can they be held in certificate with them (sorry new to this)?

I did see the info in the link but couldn't find anything on charges to transfer shares away from them.

Maybe the best thing would be to phone someone like Hargreaves Lansdown (based on MSE best buy) and ask their advice for transferring to them? I'm hoping they would be able to guide me through the process.

have you checked all your documents/statements from ComputerShare? I'm sure it'll say somewhere on your account. If in doubt, you could give ComputerShare a ring, but it does sound like they're held in electronic (CREST) format.

With regards to Hargreaves, you can request a transfer form here: http://www.hl.co.uk/investment-services/vantage-service/transferring-your-existing-investments/transfer-now

Otherwise, you can speak to one of their help desk consultants on 0117 900 9000.

You Will also need to find out if your shares held with ComputerShare are in an ISA wrapper or not;

- if they ARE in an ISA wrapper, you need to do an ISA transfer of your shares
- if they are NOT in an ISA wrapper, you need to do a normal (Electronic CREST) transfer to a HL Vantage fund & share account

Whilst you're on the phone to ComputerShare, you should check what the transfer will cost you. Their charges webpage is a bit confusing, but I think it'll cost either £16.50 or £17.50 to transfer them out.

Tim1111

Thanks George, you've been a great help.

Done a lot of reading tonight, so with your advice as well, I'm feeling a bit more confident. Now I've got a vague idea of what I'm talking about I'll call Computershare and HL tomorrow to discuss with them.

george4064

No problem. I've just a read bit more into ComputerShare, and you should be able to sell the shares online through ComputerShare dealing for a fixed fee of £20.

Source; http://www.computershare-sharedealing.co.uk/getting-started/rates-and-charges

Again, this is something you could clarify when phoning ComputerShare. You should also check with ComputerShare if they have any other fees with paying out the proceeds of the shares sold to your bank account.

Also, from that webpage it appears a transfer out will cost you £25.

Bare in mind, that transfer the shares to HL will probably take a few weeks, which will delay things. If you're purely looking to sell the shares and be done with it, It would be cheaper doing it online with ComputerShare costing you £20 in total, rather than transfer and sell through HL costing you £36.95.

Tim1111

Well that's very different to the 1% they quote elsewhere!! I'll give them a ring to clarify as that'll make life a lot easier if I just sell straight through them.

george4064

Tim1111 wrote: »

Well that's very different to the 1% they quote elsewhere!! I'll give them a ring to clarify as that'll make life a lot easier if I just sell straight through them.

They just quoted their telephone dealing rates to you, which is 1% (minimum of £20.)

Enquire about their online dealing service, it states on their website it costs £20 fixed fee for dealing online.


Most firms have different dealing charges for different methods of dealing, e.g. Postal instruction, over the telephone and online (cheapest method).