How to Confirm Share Holdings

timg147

Hi All,

Further to my previous posts regarding my parents estate. Whilst trying to accurately value their estate, I have previously recorded what I thought was their shareholding in a number of companies and have used the internet to obtain an individual sharevvalue as of the date of death. However looking a bit deeper I see that some of the share holdings do not have very up to date information. How do I go about getting confirmation of current share holding? Apologies if this is something simple - but this is the first time I have had to do this.

Thanks in Advance

Savvy_Sue

How close to IHT threshhold are you? If close, this may matter. If nowhere near, I am not sure this is something to lose sleep over. 

timg147

Hi, Quite well over the IHT threshold. Currently about £1.4m

user1977

In any event, you'll want to know what shares they have so you can transfer/sell them all....

I would ask the share registrars (assuming you don't have e.g. details from recent dividend payments).

timg147

As I said, first time doing this. How do I find the share registrars? Noobie question. 

user1977

Assuming we're talking about companies quoted on the London stock exchange rather than anything more esoteric, I would expect their websites to have this information e.g. for M&S:

https://corporate.marksandspencer.com/investors/investor-contacts

Don't you have any of the deceased's paperwork with dividend vouchers etc?

Have you valued them correctly i.e. using the "quarter-up" price, taken account of ex-dividend prices:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/valuing-stocks-and-shares-for-inheritance-tax

SiliconChip

timg147 said:

As I said, first time doing this. How do I find the share registrars? Noobie question. 

If you're not able to find registrars using the methods described by @user1977 there are a couple more ways you can proceed:

1) Go on the websites of the big registrars to see if the companies are listed there as ones that they act for, for example Equiniti and Computershare.

2) If all else fails post the company names on the Savings and Investments board to see if any of the knowledgeable posters there can help to identify the relevant registrars.