How can I check share ownership for deceased holder - Help anyone?

Testee

I'm hoping someone can help me here..............

My mother died six months ago and I believe she may have held shares in Electricity, Gas and Telephone - possibly others but I don't think so. How do I go about finding out? Is there a central shareholder register that I can check?

Anyone know or have some useful ideas?

Hopefully - thanks

jonesMUFCforever

First of all if you have access to all her papers she will either be getting a dividend either by cheque or direct into her account. Can you see anything like this showing up as a credit on any bank statement?

Can I just ask how you think she has these shares.
Let me know this and I'll be back later with more info if needed.

Testee

Thanks for quick reply mate. I know that my parents bought shares in gas, electric and I think BT when they were privatised and she wasn't really one for ever closing accounts or cashing stuff in (I found a Co-op share account that she opened in 1952 which was still valid). My father died in 1994 and I have a letter transferring electricity shares into her name from his but can't find anything further on the electricity shares or anything about any others. I've checked her bank statements and there's no automatic dividend payments, no other paperwork so I don't know for sure if she still holds shares and I guess the gas and telephone ones could even still be in my father's name.

jonesMUFCforever

The shares paper in your fathers name should have a name of a company registrar. You could start here mentioning that the shares could be in either name.
The main problem is that a lot of these gas and electric companies have merged and been taken over.
There is no central share register but the main 2 share registrar companies are Computershare and Equinity (used to be LTSB registrars).
You could always write to these 2 companies with full details.

dzug

If nothing has come through the post in the last 6 months in the form of dividend cheques or company reports, and you can find no share certificates or other correspondence anywhere, then the likelihood is that she no longer had the shares.