Share holding clarification

jackie201616

Getting myself a little confused. I'm sorting out my late fathers finances and he had a Halifax shareholding account and share ISA. Both had a quantity of HSBC shares of which Halifax have confirmed quantities on each for probate. I then received a HSBC letter regarding dividend payments at his address and on notifying them of his passing they/computershare have issued a letter confirming his holder and a quantity of HSBC shares.  This figure differs considerably from the amount held overall in both Halifax accounts. My question is are these HSBC shares the same that both are potentially managing with an error in quantities somehow or would this be a completely separate shareholding, eg 2 batches with Halifax and 1 with Computershare??

MX5huggy

Presume the latter.

eskbanker

Yes, the ones held via Halifax will be in Halifax's name as nominee, so HSBC will be unaware of his ultimate ownership of these, i.e. anything they are aware of will be a different pot.

maxsteam

I would expect Computershare, as register, to have a record of the total shares but some of those shares may be held in certificate form (managed by Computershare) while others are held in a broker's (Halifax?) nominee account. It's definitely worth looking at historical dividend payments to confirm the total number of shares. You should have bank statements and dividend confirmation slips for any shares that are held in certificate form and the broker records will show dividend payments for shares in electronic form (in a nominee account). In your shoes, I would make another calculation of the total number of shares from the dividend payments to see how this compares to the other numbers before proceeding.