Nominee Accounts

More Power Requested for Ultimate Investors

ShareSoc has issued a press release noting our submission to the Parliament BIS Committee Inquiry into Corporate Governance. It requests more power for ultimate investors. Here is a brief summary of the contents (the press release includes a link to our full submission). We suggest that the goal should be to get more power back to the ultimate investors. This can be achieved by: - Ensuring that individual shareholders can exercise their rights, even if their shares are held in nominee accounts. - Providing ...

WH Ireland Stop Offering Personal Crest Accounts

I have been advised that stockbroker W.H. Ireland are to stop offering Personal Crest Accounts. Existing clients using such accounts will have to move into a nominee account, or transfer to another broker which I can imagine a number doing. As ShareSoc Members have been told repeatedly, there are great advantages in terms of legal security and in retaining your shareholder rights by using such accounts rather than pooled nominee accounts offered by most brokers. Your name is on the share ...

Monitise and Scancell AGMs, and the Wonders of the Nominee System

Monitise (MONI) was one of those stocks for speculators in the past. One of those technology shooting stars that got to a ridiculous valuation under former CEO and founder...

Youinvest Revise Charges

AJBell Youinvest, one of the more popular low cost retail brokers, are revising their client charges. These might mean some substantial changes for some clients because of the introduction of a custody charge based on a percentage of investments held. However there is an upper limit of £25 per quarter for a SIPP or £7.50 for an ISA and the previous SIPP custody charge of £25 per quarter is being scrapped. There will also be a "tiered" custody charge for funds ...

Charles Stanley Halts Certificated Dealing

Charles Stanley, one of the larger traditional retail stockbrokers, has advised its clients that it will soon cease support of certificated trading. Those retaining paper share certificates because they appreciate the rights associated with being on the share register of a company will be moved into nominee accounts, unless they choose to transfer their business elsewhere. We have updated the page on the ShareSoc web site which lists alternative suppliers of certificated dealing and personal crest accounts which is here: brokers One advantage ...

How to Hold Shares – Investors Chronicle Article

Friday (11/3/2016) saw the publication of a sound article by Investors Chronicle under the headline "Choose the right way to hold your shares". It reported on the recently published BIS research paper on shareholding in the UK upon which we have previously commented. It quotes me extensively on the subject including these comments: "The UK Individual Shareholders Society (ShareSoc) said the report showed "the need for reform". Roger Lawson, deputy chairman of ShareSoc, says brokers have an incentive to keep investors ignorant ...

Placings and Open Offers and How to Do Them – St Ives and Tritax

One of the things that annoys private investors is when a company does a placing of shares. This can be for a number of reasons such as the company needing funds for an acquisition, or simply because the company is fast running out of cash and wishes to stave off financial distress. Because of the EU mandated Prospectus Directive, a full Rights Issue where all shareholders can participate in the share issuance and hence avoid dilution of their stake, does require an ...

UK Share Ownership Structure – Not Fit for Purpose

The Editor of Investors Chronicle commented on the recently published BIS Paper on the structure of UK share ownership in this week's edition (see the last article on our blog for more background). He had this to say: "The Department [BIS] finally seems to be coming around to the view that it is, quite simply, not fit for purpose - a view we have held for some time and which I am regularly encouraged by readers to push further. So well ...

BIS Release Paper Showing the Mind-Boggling Complexity of the Intermediated Shareholding Model

The Government BIS Department have released a Research Paper entitled "Exploring the Intermediated Shareholding Model". It shows in 160 odd pages the existing share registration models in the UK and the underlying systems that support shareholder rights (including voting). In essence it demonstrates perfectly the need for reform. It shows that private investors often do not know what rights they have in nominee accounts or indeed that there are alternative ways of holding shares. Even if they are aware they should have ...

Broken Brokers and Nominee Accounts

There is a great letter from a reader in this weeks Investors Chronicle on the subject of nominee accounts. Under the title "Broken Brokers", Jonathan Crozier says he used to work for Pritchard Stockbrokers who are one the brokers that went bust covered in previous articles. He complains about the low level of compensation under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (currently £50,000) which he says is a ludicrously low figure for Mr Average. But this is the paragraph that made the most ...

When Brokers Go Bust

"When Brokers Go Bust" was the title of a fascinating article in Investors Chronicle on 11/12/2015. It covered the impact on investors when their stockbroker goes out of business. That's pretty uncommon you might think. But it revealed the surprising fact that in the last five years alone more than 400 investment firms have gone belly up, based on data from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). It spelled out two particular problems: 1) the difficulty in untangling pooled nominee accounts (which ...

Better Finance Press Release on Shareholder Rights Directive

The following press release has just been issued by Better Finance - an organisation that represents private investor associations: PRESS RELEASE A CAPITAL MARKETS UNION WITHOUT A SINGLE MARKET FOR EU-WIDE SHAREHOLDER ENGAGEMENT Brussels, 9 November 2015 – The Commission’s proposal for the review of the Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD), aimed at countering wide-spread short-termism in favour of a long-term perspective in the governance of listed companies by stimulating stronger shareholder engagement, was presented to the European Parliament (EP) and Council. Whereas the EP ...