Selling certificated shares after death

SiliconChip

Many years ago my father bought some shares in Lloyds Bank (currently worth around £250). When he died the certificate was reissued showing he was deceased and naming my mother as executor.

She has now died, and as her executor I have advised Equiniti who have responded that "...the details of the legal representative, on the quoted holding(s), have been amended as requested". They haven't, as yet, sent a replacement certificate, and it's not clear whether they will.

Their letter suggests selling or transferreing the shares to make dealing with them easier, and as the value needs to be distributed to beneficiaries it makes sense to me to sell them. If I do that through Equiniti it appears that I'd need to use their telephone dealing service, which has a minimum fee of £60, almost 25% of the value of the shares.

I wondered if there is a more cost effective way of selling in this circumstance? I have a share dealing account with Halifax (and I own Lloyds shares on a nominee basis myself) but I don't know if they handle certificates, and there may be a better option that you can recommend. Or you may think that a simple sale through Equiniti is the best choice.

masonic

I don't know about whether this is a proper process to go through in these circumstances, but Jarvis XO would probably be the cheapest option if so: https://www.x-o.co.uk/nominee-account.html
They will transfer in shares in certificate format; whether they'll be ok with the originals bearing the wrong name I don't know.

JGB1955

I would transfer them to yourself then sell them through your own share dealing account  and credit the executors account with the proceeds. You will be able to show a full audit trail f challenged  and it's in the interests if the estate.

Alexland

SiliconChip said:

She has now died, and as her executor I have advised Equiniti who have responded that "...the details of the legal representative, on the quoted holding(s), have been amended as requested". They haven't, as yet, sent a replacement certificate, and it's not clear whether they will.

Suggest you contact them to finish the conversation and understand if they will be issuing a new certificate.

SiliconChip

Alexland said:

SiliconChip said:

She has now died, and as her executor I have advised Equiniti who have responded that "...the details of the legal representative, on the quoted holding(s), have been amended as requested". They haven't, as yet, sent a replacement certificate, and it's not clear whether they will.

Suggest you contact them to finish the conversation and understand if they will be issuing a new certificate.

Yes, that is probably the best first step, I knew I wouldn't have an opportunity to contact them today so I thought I'd use that time to seek views from the forum, I'll post an update when I find out any more.

Apodemus

What exactly have you informed Equiniti of?  If it is only that the holder is deceased and that you are the executor, they may be waiting for granting of probate/confirmation, at which point they can effect the transfer to a new beneficiary.  Meantime the register would have the holder as "The estate of..." or "The executors of..." which would not normally give rise to them issuing a new certificate.

SiliconChip

Apodemus said:

What exactly have you informed Equiniti of?  If it is only that the holder is deceased and that you are the executor, they may be waiting for granting of probate/confirmation, at which point they can effect the transfer to a new beneficiary.  Meantime the register would have the holder as "The estate of..." or "The executors of..." which would not normally give rise to them issuing a new certificate.

That's a good point, I forgot to say that they had already seen the grant of probate. I spoke to them today and they are sending me transfer forms so that the share certificate can be reissued in my name, which I can then either merge with my existing holding or sell, perhaps through the route masonic mentions. Rather surprisingly there are no fees for the transfer, so it seems like a no brainer to do that rather than pay Equiniti £60 to sell the shares.