Selling Unilever Shares - Advice Needed

jen698

My mum has approx £60k of unilever shares which she wants to sell over the next 3-4 years (15 to 20K per year). She has sold them in the past with Computershare share centre, however she has just had notification that they are changing to Interactive Investor Ltd. They charge £9.99 per month after the first 6 months, but am not sure of their commission rates etc. We have been told in the past that she has been paying over the odds on previous sales so are wondering what to do now. She has 3 options, move across to the new platform, inform them that she wants to go with another broker and give them full details etc. or withdraw the lot. She doesn't know what to do for the best. She currently has a paper share certificate in case this makes any difference. Would appreciate any advice!

Thrugelmir

X-O will handle the transfer of paper certificates to a nominee basis for you. Their GIA ( General Investment Account ) has no annual charge. Trades are £5.95p each. 


https://www.x-o.co.uk/

lozzy1965

Thrugelmir said:

"...paper certificates to a nominee basis..."

Just in case you don't know, a 'nominee' account means the shares are held electronically by the broker, but they will still be owned by your mother.  Selling shares held electronically is much much cheaper than selling shares held via paper certificates.  It used to be £25 per transaction for paper, so just over 4 times as much to sell them!

maxsteam

In your shoes, I would take two steps. Trying to do both at the same time would be difficult. The first step I would take is to transfer the paper certificate into an online, nominee account. I agree that x-o (Jarvis) are definitely worth a look but there are other brokers out there. The second step is to click "sell" as and when the time seems right before transferring the funds to your current account.

Eco_Miser

Are the shares held by Computershare or by your mother (as paper certificates) or some of both?

If she holds them, then the notification just concerns the normally empty account through which she has sold in the past, which can be closed.

If Computershare hold some or all of them then her best choice would be to choose another broker, such as x-o, and have the shares transferred to them.

jen698

Many thanks for all your advice, I really appreciate it. I think the shares are held totally by my mother, she has the paper certificate in her name which all the shares on it. She received this last time she sold some through Computershare, i.e she had to send off the original certificate and they sent back a new one with the balance of the shares. I think then, reading through the posts that she can use a company such as X.O. so isn't tied to Computershare at all. It has thrown me as in the form they sent, they gave 3 options: to move to their new platform, to transfer to someone else (but let them know who straightaway), or to cash them in.  However after reading through their info I found the following:-

• If \use the Computershare Certificate Sales or Corporate Nominee services, or any Employee Plan dealing service, these are not affected by this change.

Does this mean she doesn't  have to do anything with the form as Computershare do not actually hold the shares, but obviously she will need to choose another broker in the near future, so that when she chooses, she can sell?
Thanks again, I know nothing about shares so am just trying to do my best to help!

maxsteam

jen698 said:

Computershare do not actually hold the shares, but obviously she will need to choose another broker in the near future, so that when she chooses, she can sell?

The registrar keeps a record of the shareholders and posts out the dividend cheques while a broker enables you to buy or sell shares.

Computershare are the registrar. While they do also provide broker services, if you hold the share certificate you are not tied to any particular broker and can choose one from the list provided on the London Stock Exchange's website, such as x-o (Jarvis) or YouInvest (AJBell).

Alexland

maxsteam said:
such as x-o (Jarvis) or YouInvest (AJBell).

This job is perfectly suited to Jarvis XO and they have good customer service so there is no need to consider more expensive and complicated accounts such as AJ Bell where they charge an ongoing % custody fee on their nominee account for holding shares so the account would need to be prefunded with some cash in advance of the transfer.

jen698

That's great, thanks everyone for clarifying it, really appreciate the advice, it was very helpful!