Most cost-effective way of selling shares following a bereavement?

itm2

I am handling the estate of my late mother. She had shares in M&S, Barclays and Lloyds totalling around £5.5k. None of the individual holdings was worth more than £2.5k.
Her shares were registered with the Equiniti online service. I have notified them of the death, and sent them the Grant of Probate. I now need to sell the shares.
While I have managed to locate most of the share certificates, some of them are missing.
I have looked at Equiniti's charges for processing the sale, and 1.9%, with a minimum of £70 per sale.There's also a £60 charge for any missing/lost share certificates. So their charges will amount to something north of £170. While it would seem to be simplest to use their service to sell the shares, I was wondering if there was any more cost-effective way of doing it?

shiraz99

Personally I'd just stick with their share dealing service. If all the shares are part of their online service do you still need the original share certificates?

I'm in a similar position with Equiniti as they hold my late Dad's BAE shares. I do need to chase up with them though as I sent all the relevant details and grant of probate over a month ago via email and haven't yet had a reply.

p00hsticks

The cheapest / simplest  execution only share dealin service recommended over on the savings and investment board is usually x-o, at £5.95 a trade

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

But I suspect that in order to be in a position use them you'd first need to replace those missing share certificates (assuming that they're not held online in Crest by Equiniti) and then possibly get the shares transfered into your name, so there may not be much of a saving.

Personally when I was in a similar position, but with Computershare not Equiniti,  I took advantage of their  specialist bereavement service to sell the shares - it was almost certainly not the cheapest but it was by far the least hassle.

shiraz99

As above, if you want to sell the shares away from Equiniti you'd have to transfer them whereas if you allow Equiniti to sell them you can so so on behalf of the estate.

Linton

Being an executor can be stressful enough without worrying about a few £10s out of £5.5k.  Just use the simplest method and get it done.

kipsterno1

Sorry for your loss. Having gone through this process last year I came to the same conclusion as Linton. It just isn't worth the messing to save a few pounds. The only other option is to transfer them to one of the beneficiaries but that can be a can of worms if there are more than one that want the shares.

It good that you have already sent in the grant of probate. If you send it at the same time as the share certificates there is an extra charge. 

itm2

Thanks for all the feedback. I'll give Equniti the go-ahead. I suspect that it may take a while....

doodling

Hi,

It is also worth being aware that some companies subsidise the sale of their shares by small shareholders (presumably fewer shareholders is generally better for them too) so you might find that, if Equiniti is also the registrar for those companies that not all of the transactions will be at the price quoted.  That was certainly the case for some old Centrica shares I sold a while back when winding up.my Mum's estate.

Once you have the paperwork (share cert, probate, etc.) then I found Equiniti very quick.

JGB1955

I was aghast, as executor of my father's estate, to realise that I was paying £15 to sell 1050 Saga shares worth less than £130, £58 to sell £315 of Rolls Royce shares .... so pleased to be able to sell £10K of Pennon shares for £1 via Ii... wish I'd come across them some months earlier!

Middle_Sister

JGB1955 said:

I was aghast, as executor of my father's estate, to realise that I was paying £15 to sell 1050 Saga shares worth less than £130, £58 to sell £315 of Rolls Royce shares .... so pleased to be able to sell £10K of Pennon shares for £1 via Ii... wish I'd come across them some months earlier!

Who did you use?

SiliconChip

Middle_Sister said:

JGB1955 said:

I was aghast, as executor of my father's estate, to realise that I was paying £15 to sell 1050 Saga shares worth less than £130, £58 to sell £315 of Rolls Royce shares .... so pleased to be able to sell £10K of Pennon shares for £1 via Ii... wish I'd come across them some months earlier!

Who did you use?

It's already in @JGB1955's post, although the unexpected capitalisation doesn't help to spot it.

"via Ii"

https://www.ii.co.uk/