Lost shares

whyiseverythingsocomplicated

My late Father held some shares and I have the old paper certificates. The shares are held and registered in the US. The number of shares quoted by Shareowner Services US don't tally with the number on the certificates - there have been multiple mergers etc. in the years since he bought the shares and I wonder if anyone knows how I can search for lost shares. I have looked at Gretel but it gets mixed reviews. Thanks.  

Baldytyke88

whyiseverythingsocomplicated said:

My late Father held some shares and I have the old paper certificates. The shares are held and registered in the US. The number of shares quoted by Shareowner Services US don't tally with the number on the certificates - there have been multiple mergers etc. in the years since he bought the shares and I wonder if anyone knows how I can search for lost shares. I have looked at Gretel but it gets mixed reviews. Thanks.  

Do you know that the shares are still valid and perhaps the certificate was replaced with a certificate with shares in a different company?

Is it just shares in one company, what are they called?

wmb194

whyiseverythingsocomplicated said:

My late Father held some shares and I have the old paper certificates. 

The shares are held and registered in the US. 

The number of shares quoted by Shareowner Services US don't tally with the number on the certificates - there have been multiple mergers etc. in the years since he bought the shares and I wonder if anyone knows how I can search for lost shares. I have looked at Gretel but it gets mixed reviews. Thanks.  

Which companies? It's usually possible to work through mergers, share splits etc. to work out whether the number is correct but the likelihood is that, "Shareowner Services US" - the registrar? Equiniti US? - has the correct data.

"How can I search for lost shares?" Here or in the US? Not sure about the US but here you could try Gretel or calling the registrars yourself. The issue will be if there are stockbrokers holding shares on your father's behalf, registrars won't know about those as the shares will be in the brokers' names.