Should I sell my Lloyds Shares?

sandyman80

I am in my eighties and have some health problems so I am organising my finances for the inevitable.

I have 360 Lloyds shares that I got when Halifax went public that are now worth less than £200.

Should I sell them now or let my estate deal with them?

eskbanker

Entirely up to you - it would make sense to sell them now if you feel that the investment has reached its conclusion, but it would be much the same process for your executor if necessary?

Notepad_Phil

Selling them now would probably make your executor's life that little bit easier, especially if these are your only shares and your executor is not particularly into shares themselves.

J63320

I have a couple of little shareholdings - Lloyds and BT - but it would cost me a lot in fees to sell them. I think I could probably avoid the fees if I signed up to a dealing platform, but the dividends are OK so I’m keeping them.

I inherited the Lloyds from my husband; I was his executor and it was a very simple job to have them transferred into my name.  My heirs will be getting them for nothing so I’m not worried about giving them the job, and cost, of selling them should they wish to.

george4064

If one of your objectives is to try make life easier for your executor(s), you could transfer your Lloyds shares (plus any others you may have in certificate form) into an electronic format with an investment platform like Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell or Fidelity (note, other investment platforms exist!) Once in electronic format, transferring or selling the shares will be cheaper too.

Each investment platform will have done many of these transfers before and have a process in place (sometimes known as 'lodging', ie the process of converting paper share certificates into electronically held form).

As a side note, it's worth making a list of all your assets to help your executor(s) locate them when the time comes.

sandyman80

The shares are still in Equiniti share portfolio where they've been since they were put there.

sandyman80

eskbanker said:

Entirely up to you - it would make sense to sell them now if you feel that the investment has reached its conclusion, but it would be much the same process for your executor if necessary?

Do you honestly think they are going to drastically increase in value in the next few months?

If I can get £200 for them I will sell them.

I should have sold them when they were worth approx £3000

Hoenir

If you aim is to simplify your estate for the executors. Sell the shares. Be one less task for them to deal with. 

The heyday for banks was in the post GFC era. Long past now. The price isn't suddenly surge to the extent that the shares will suddenly become worth hundreds of £'s more. 

jimjames

If you do sell them, make sure you destroy the certificates or at least mark as being sold. The number of posts here from executors who find certificates that are almost certainly worthless but still kept is pretty high.

eskbanker

sandyman80 said:

eskbanker said:

Entirely up to you - it would make sense to sell them now if you feel that the investment has reached its conclusion, but it would be much the same process for your executor if necessary?

Do you honestly think they are going to drastically increase in value in the next few months?

If I can get £200 for them I will sell them.

I should have sold them when they were worth approx £3000

I'm not suggesting that they'll increase in the next few months (and they've been relatively flat for many years), but just highlighting that it's valid to consider whether liquidating them now contributes to your financial goals, rather than simply looking at it from the perspective of easing admin for your executor.

poseidon1

sandyman80 said:

The shares are still in Equiniti share portfolio where they've been since they were put there.

Since you appear to be utilising Equiniti's online share portfolio service, then yes indeed sell them now. From what I can see the dealing charge would be £10.99.

You would certainly be doing your executors a service.

It is a thankless and sometimes onerous job (unless executor is also sole beneficiary) and in the case of this tiny shareholding which you can currently dispose of at a click of a mouse, an executor would have the bother of dealing with Equiniti's bereavement department before getting to point where the shares could then be sold. A fair degree  of aggro for little reward.

I would get shot of it immediately.