Transferring shares from Equiniti after a death!

P933alilli

Hi, i wondered how difficult it is to transfer shares after the death of a family member. Probate wasnt needed so,

  Ive filled in a small estate indemnity form and wanted to send the fee by electronic transfer.

Firstly,

            i went to my bank this morning to explain that i want to send an electronic payment, can i do it in branch now and that i needed proof via a statement which included my bank details as sender and Equiniti's bank details as the payee which is what Equiniti requires. The banker acted all dumb as though she had no idea what i was talking about and asked why i needed Equiniti's details if your getting money from them. I explained that i needed to pay a fee in order for the shares to be transferred to me. When she began to understand this she said she couldnt give me a statement with the info i needed. She could give me a receipt but not with the payees details on and i should contact Equiniti first to ask them what they need. But it was all written down on the form what they needed!! I dont believe that she couldnt do this!

   But then secondly, when i first informed Equiniti of the death there was a quearied reply from them because  my family member's first and middle name are transposed from the usual correspondence i had with them! It was because the family member used their middle name as first name all their life but now the death certificate shows the name as they were originally christened. So they required a written letter from either a solicitor or the bank to prove that theyre the same person even though they always lived at the same address. I had a third party mandate from the bank branch ten years ago because the family member was losing mobility. I have the copies of the signed letter they gave me at the time. But again this morning the banker was rude and dismissive and told me to get back in touch with Equiniti to ask them exactly what they require.

    I have all the other information Equiniti need in terms of final will, death certificate and addresses of my family member which all tally with the name...whichever way round they want it!

RAS

Are you talking to the bereavement teams in both organisation? Anyone else is going to be pretty clueless.

user1977

P933alilli said:

they required a written letter from either a solicitor or the bank to prove that theyre the same person ...the banker was rude and dismissive and told me to get back in touch with Equiniti to ask them exactly what they require.

Well, have Equiniti done so? I'm not sure what you could reasonably expect either a solicitor or the bank to say - I can understand them being reluctant to confirm that John James Smith and James John Smith are one and the same person - what if they're not?

I suppose you could swear such a statement in front of the solicitor, if that helped any.

P933alilli

Thanks! I informed the bank of the death earlier in the year and sent the death certificate online. I then received cash from the family member's account a few days later. The death certificate i sent online was accepted with the  family members original christian name on it and it wasnt a problem. As alluded to i'm probably better ringing up bereavement team prior to any appointment. I also recognised one of the tillers on duty this morning and thought she could have verified my identity but i suppose there are no such things as family banks these days? Cheers!

Fermion

You have progressed better than us. We had a similar situation with my Mother-in-Law not using her 1st name for banks and NHS etc but in her case the crematorium refused to accept the death certificate. They insisted that we get it changed to include her usual "alias" via an "Otherwise known as" statement as her name didn't match with her GP records!

She also had Equiniti shares and they were a pain. There were some shares certificates missing so we had to sign an indemnity form (chargeable) and then pay the fees. In our case we had to wait for probate. This took several months to process.