Medallion Signature Guarantees
When selling and transferring US & Canadian Securities it is compulsory to obtain the Medallion Signature Guarantee, otherwise transactions will not be approved by a transfer agent. The signature guarantee limits the liability of the transfer agent in cases of potential forgery and aims to protect shareholders against unauthorised trades.
Only members of the Securities Transfer Agents Medallion Program (known as STAMP) can issue this guarantee and our Medallion Signature Guarantees service will help solicitors transfer share-holdings to the beneficiaries or sell the Deceased’s holding in shares traded in North America.
Finders can now obtain the Medallion Guarantee and will guide you through the required paperwork.
Resealing Grants of Probate
When an Estate involves foreign assets, Finders can obtain Grants of Probate – or reseals of probate – to enable you to deal with overseas property, bank accounts and share holdings.
The obtaining or resealing of a Grant will usually involve a lawyer in the country local to where the asset is held applying to their Court to reseal an English Grant of Probate. Once the reseal is in place, the solicitor can arrange the sale or transfer of the asset.
We can also arrange for the UK resealing of foreign Grants of Probate, which are usually from Commonwealth Countries or the EU. In respect of a Grant of Probate issued in other countries, we usually have to apply for an English Grant of Probate. Our service will enable you to realise assets and enable a safe distribution of funds.
Sale & Transfer Services
Our Sale & Transfer Services will assist in confirming the validity of share certificates and replacement of any missing certificates, and, where necessary, preparing and submitting the Sale/Transfer forms, and returning the new share certificates or the proceeds of sale.
Unclaimed Dividends Recovery Service
Dividends and other distributions often remain unclaimed by shareholders, sometimes for years. We can help recover these outstanding dividends together with the corresponding tax vouchers and any interest that may have accrued. We can also prepare dividends schedules for current and historic tax years which may be required for Income Tax purposes.
Missing Share Certificates
If you are missing share certificates you will need to obtain a letter of indemnity from the company registrar. Letters of indemnity are issued to minimise any potential financial loss caused by any misuse of the original certificate. Once the completed letter of indemnity is returned to the registrars, they will issue a duplicate share certificate replacing the missing one.
Although the registrars will arrange countersignature to a letter of indemnity when the value of the shares represented by the missing Share Certificate is less than £50,000, they will not do so for shares which are worth more. A countersignature protects the company if the person who signs the letter of indemnity is unable to meet its requirements. The countersignature takes on a possible liability and this is why a fee is charged.
We can assist with the whole process of getting a valid duplicate certificate whether or not the value of the shares represented by the missing Certificate exceeds £50,000.
If a countersignature is required, we will send off the letter of indemnity to our supplier and request a quote. It is usually around 1% of the value of the shares represented by the missing Share Certificate.
Once the quote has been accepted we will require you to send us documentation to comply with anti-money laundering regulations – these are certified copies of passport, a recent Bank Statement along with one other form of address identification such as a recent utility bill. The last two documents must be no more than 3 months old.
We will arrange for the duplicate share certificate to be issued and return it to you.
Information on costs and how to proceed with these services can be found at our website www.findersUK.com
These form part of a growing array of services Finders offer that includes Missing Heir Location, Missing Will Service, Missing Beneficiary and Will insurances, Overseas Bankruptcy Search, Missing Asset Searches, Statutory Will Research and many more.
Finders have been awarded the ISO 9001:2008 Total Quality Management and ISO /IEC 27001:2005 Information Security Systems certifications and are the first and only probate genealogy firm to achieve the international versions of the Standards as devised by the IAB (International Accreditation Board).
Our Missing Beneficiary Insurance and Missing Will Insurance are provided via Aviva and we are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for insurance business.
