abrdn & ProSearch

eamon

Hello Folks

Received a letter from the above people. Apparently they have been sending me cheques to my last address (16+ years ago). I dutifully contacted everybody at the time with my new address and have been receiving mail in the post  ever since.

Apparently I have £2068 in cash entitlements & 465 ordinary shares. This is all news to me as the last shares I owned I cashed in long before moving house.

From what I can work out ProSearch manage abrdn plc's share register (used to be Standard Life Aberdeen plc & before that Standard Life plc)'

As it happens I do have a frozen Standard Life work pension, can I possibly have acquired shares via that?

Assuming that I have shares & cash does anybody out there know if ProSearch are genuine?

Lastly I have until 31st March to return the verification form.

Look forward to your replies.

Eamon

plumb1_2

I got my free shares by having a SL pension, so maybe same for you.

Albermarle

As it happens I do have a frozen Standard Life work pension,

It is unlikely it is frozen and will be still invested. Therefore its value will go up and down and there will be charges.
Just because you are not contributing to it anymore, would not normally mean it is frozen. 

Linton

Standard Life was a mutual company owned by its policy holders.  In 2006 it de-mutualised  and was floated on the stock market.  The previous owners were given free shares.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

seems ProSearch are a subsidiary of Equiniti who are the registrars for Abrdn, click on links for more information.

eamon

Linton said:

Standard Life was a mutual company owned by its policy holders.  In 2006 it de-mutualised  and was floated on the stock market.  The previous owners were given free shares.

Now it makes sense. 2006 was a busy year for me. House move, trip to OZ and breaking up with long term GF and sorting the legal bits of that.  Tomorrow I will get the paperwork sorted and sent.

Thanks to everybody that has responded.

plumb1_2

I have close to 3000 of these shares, as I opted for a drip reinvest instead of taking dividend’s.
Question, would I have to declare all the profit I make when I sell them, as basically they are all free shares?

wmb194

eamon said:

Linton said:

Standard Life was a mutual company owned by its policy holders.  In 2006 it de-mutualised  and was floated on the stock market.  The previous owners were given free shares.

Now it makes sense. 2006 was a busy year for me. House move, trip to OZ and breaking up with long term GF and sorting the legal bits of that.  Tomorrow I will get the paperwork sorted and sent.

Thanks to everybody that has responded.

Wait, wait, wait! Is ProSearch going to charge a fee? Either way, you don't need to use its service: just call Abrdn's registrar yourself and talk to it directly.

wmb194

plumb1_2 said:

I have close to 3000 of these shares, as I opted for a drip reinvest instead of taking dividend’s.
Question, would I have to declare all the profit I make when I sell them, as basically they are all free shares?

They weren't free. You received a dividend i.e. should be declared as dividend income in your tax return if necessary and then you bought new shares with the dividend. Therefore they become part of a pooled section 104 holding as they normally would whenever you buy new shares in a company you already own. 

You need to work put work out what they cost to buy and include that in your calculation of capital gain or loss.

dunstonh

As it happens I do have a frozen Standard Life work pension, can I possibly have acquired shares via that?

If it was frozen, no.  If it was deferred or paid up then yes.   I suspect you don't mean it is frozen (which has a specific meaning with pensions).

plumb1_2

wmb194 said:

plumb1_2 said:

I have close to 3000 of these shares, as I opted for a drip reinvest instead of taking dividend’s.
Question, would I have to declare all the profit I make when I sell them, as basically they are all free shares?

They weren't free. You received a dividend i.e. should be declared as dividend income in your tax return if necessary and then you bought new shares with the dividend. Therefore they become part of a pooled section 104 holding as they normally would whenever you buy new shares in a company you already own. 

You need to work put work out what they cost to buy and include that in your calculation of capital gain or loss.

Shares were free, yes though their dividend reinvestment plan, they automatically bought new shares with the yearly dividends. Sadly don’t have the paperwork going back to 2006.

So I would need to find out the yearly dividends from 2006 and add them up ?
Surly if I sold them all tomorrow for £6500, then wouldn’t that be my profit for cgt?