Recently found shares. Who should claim them?

Shelldean

Ok a small update!
They've been in touch and confirmed 12 national grid shares and 20 royal dutch shell B shares.
Asked us to fill in a the small estates form, send death certificate etc.
They also said only spouse, blood relative or executor of a will can claim these shares.
Told them we've already sent all form several times. Explained whole situation again.
And then asked them to advise what we do now?

They also want a fee!! £45 admin, payable once and a £34.50 countersigning fee for EACH company..
But this fee is waived if the holdings are below £100, and only countersigning fee is payable for holdings between £100 and £200. This is worked on the value at date of death.
We had no idea of the value, so no idea which few if any is due, so have asked for clarification on this too.

However, I believe the National grid are worth approx £114 and Royal dutch £190 at today's value. Least I think that's correct????

App once again the ball is back in their court, and we are still no further forward!

hjd

My father died in 2000, and my mother in 2018. When sorting out my mother's estate I came across recent letters addressed to my father saying that there was some money due from (I think) a rights issue on some shares he had owned. I rang up the registrars and explained and said could they just deal with it and donate the proceeds to charity to save all the paperwork. They were happy to do that. Don't know if it's a possibility in your case.

Shelldean

hjd said:

My father died in 2000, and my mother in 2018. When sorting out my mother's estate I came across recent letters addressed to my father saying that there was some money due from (I think) a rights issue on some shares he had owned. I rang up the registrars and explained and said could they just deal with it and donate the proceeds to charity to save all the paperwork. They were happy to do that. Don't know if it's a possibility in your case.

Maybe! All we keep being asked for is the shareholders son's death certificate, as the son registered the death. We simply can't get them to see he is actually irrelevant!

Manxman_in_exile

If you want to continue playing letter tennis with them, challenge them to explain why the original shareholder's legal heirs (ie his widow when he died and her heirs when she died) can't inherit them.

If I were your husband I'd be contacting National Grid(?) and Royal Dutch Shell to find out (1)what the shares are worth, (2) whether there are any limitations as to how they are passed on when the shareholder dies, and (3) how to get them transferred now.  If they ask about the search company's involvement, he can honestly say they are being both unreasonable and obstructive.  (I'm assuming again that your husband has not agreed to pay the search company any fee?)

If you end up still having to deal with the search company, point out to them that they can't earn any fee from you if they don't transfer the shares...

Then decide if he wants to waste any more time on this.  (But I'd want to find out what the shares are worth).

xylophone

If I were your husband I'd be contacting National Grid(?) and Royal Dutch Shell 

I should think that the OP is actually in  contact with Equiniti (registrar for both companies).

https://www.shareview.co.uk/4/Info/Portfolio/default/en/home/products/Pages/Shares-traded.aspx

 (But I'd want to find out what the shares are worth).

https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/r/royal-dutch-shell-plc-b-shares-eur0.07?tab=how-to-invest

https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/n/national-grid-ord-12,-204473p

I wonder whether there are any dividends outstanding? It seems that the deceased owner of the shares died some sixteen years ago.

https://investors.nationalgrid.com/shareholder-information/dividends/dividends-history

https://www.shell.com/investors/dividend-information/historical-dividend-payments.html

Manxman_in_exile

I was hoping it wasn't equinity as I've found them a real PITA before.  Have they a UK wide monopoly on company registrar services?

The OP/her husband needs to contact them to determine the value of the shares and decide if it's worth it.  Presumably it's worth it anyway, but I'd want to know the value.  I'd also want an answer about the dividends, which is a good question.  Surely if there were any payable they'd have gone straight into a bank a/c or be paid by cheque?  I've had to request cheques be re-raised by equiniti before and they were charging £25 - 30 per cheque - I imagine 16 years worth would be a bit costly  

I'd be concerned that even if the OP's husband was able to sort this out themselves, the search company would still be claiming a fee.  (After all, the executor/administrator would never have known about the shares but for the search company, or they may already have some arrangement with Equinity.  They do seem to have been unreasonable, though).

xylophone

Surely if there were any payable they'd have gone straight into a bank a/c or be paid by cheque? 

If they were being paid to the deceased's sole account, one assumes they would have been bounced back once this was closed.

If to a joint  account, and this was retained by the widow after her husband's death, presumably they would have gone on being paid to the widow  but bounce back after the account was closed by her Administrator around six years ago.

JGB1955

Historical share prices can easily be found - Royal Dutch Shell, going back to 2000, are at https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/quote/RDSB.L/history?period1=958348800&period2=1602892800&interval=1d&filter=history&frequency=1d&includeAdjustedClose=true

Shelldean

Manxman_in_exile said:

If you want to continue playing letter tennis with them, challenge them to explain why the original shareholder's legal heirs (ie his widow when he died and her heirs when she died) can't inherit them.

If I were your husband I'd be contacting National Grid(?) and Royal Dutch Shell to find out (1)what the shares are worth, (2) whether there are any limitations as to how they are passed on when the shareholder dies, and (3) how to get them transferred now.  If they ask about the search company's involvement, he can honestly say they are being both unreasonable and obstructive.  (I'm assuming again that your husband has not agreed to pay the search company any fee?)

If you end up still having to deal with the search company, point out to them that they can't earn any fee from you if they don't transfer the shares...

Then decide if he wants to waste any more time on this.  (But I'd want to find out what the shares are worth).

We're currently paying email tennis with Equinti now.
That's how we found about about a second set of shares with royal Dutch, as they did a shareholder search.
however they state only a spouse, blood relative or an executor claim these shares! My husband is none of these.
So I've written back explaining the timeline......AGAIN!
I think I've worked out roughly what the shares are worth at today's value see my earlier post.
Never even considered dividends!!

And he's wasting no time, it's all my time 😞

Shelldean

Manxman_in_exile said:

I was hoping it wasn't equinity as I've found them a real PITA before.  Have they a UK wide monopoly on company registrar services?

The OP/her husband needs to contact them to determine the value of the shares and decide if it's worth it.  Presumably it's worth it anyway, but I'd want to know the value.  I'd also want an answer about the dividends, which is a good question.  Surely if there were any payable they'd have gone straight into a bank a/c or be paid by cheque?  I've had to request cheques be re-raised by equiniti before and they were charging £25 - 30 per cheque - I imagine 16 years worth would be a bit costly  

I'd be concerned that even if the OP's husband was able to sort this out themselves, the search company would still be claiming a fee.  (After all, the executor/administrator would never have known about the shares but for the search company, or they may already have some arrangement with Equinity.  They do seem to have been unreasonable, though).

It IS equinti 😞😞
We (I) have asked about the value, because the fee payable to equinti varies depending on the value of the shares!! See earlier post again!

Anything he signed with the search company has been sent back, original sent back, so unless the photocopied them, they have no signed documents.