Money helpdesk: Mystery of late mother's missing investments solved

Published on Saturday 21 November 2009 14:16

A FEW months ago I discovered a statement concerning shares my mother held. When she died, I was the only beneficiary of her will and was unaware of these shares. They were with Halifax Building Society. She had two accounts. One was a Liquid Gold account noted as being closed and the other was a Solid Gold. The share allocation was 529 and there was a balance of £11,214.61 showing on this statement, dated April 1997.

As I didn't know anything about these shares, and Halifax Building Society no longer existed, I was advised to write to Computershare in Bristol and include the original death certificate and any other documents. They returned the death certificate, but after a few months hadn't contacted me.

When I called I was told the business was now being dealt with by Equiniti Ltd in Lancing, West Sussex. I wrote to them and enclosed a copy of the statement from Halifax Building Society and death certificate. They asked for more information, eg if the holding was sold or transferred, and a copy of the share certificate or a dividend tax voucher which I don't have. The only people who could give me that would be Halifax BS, which no longer exists.

Is there anyone I can write to, to get more information so that Equiniti can check if these shares are still somewhere in the system ?

JC, Edinburgh

Scotland on Sunday asked Hannah Edwards, a financial planner at Killik & Co, for her advice, and she replied:

"I would go back to Computershare and ask for a closing statement at the point Computershare handed over all responsibility to Equiniti. Without an old account number there is unlikely to be much success. One other route may be to double check on the share register just to make sure your mother did not purchase these shares through the Halifax but held certificated holdings. In this case, even if the certificate is lost this can be reordered if just a few more pieces of information are gathered."

However, we were intrigued by the riddle of the missing money and shares and decided to hunt further. We got to the bottom of it, although there is no surprise windfall. But at least the puzzle is solved.

It seems JC might have become confused about both the account and the shares, which is understandable given all the turmoil following the death of a close relative.

The Halifax has a clear record of writing to her on 6 January 2003 and sending her a cheque for the balance in the savings account. Its records also showed her mother claimed the shares at demutualisation and held them in a Halifax Share Dealing account. As a result of a corporate restructure in June 1999 the shares were converted into 489 Halifax Group plc shares, later 489 HBOS ordinary shares. However, these shares were removed from the shares register in July 2003, indicating they had been sold.

The bank spent some time tracking down who received the proceeds of the sale, to clarify what exactly happened to them.

It finally discovered that when the shares were sold they were held in the name of our reader in respect of the estate of her late mother, indicating again she had sold them herself or someone else had sold them on her behalf.

So no surprise windfall, but at least the riddles are solved. Most banks and building societies have dormant account and unclaimed share departments which can help relatives sort out the muddle of paperwork which has to be dealt with when an elderly relative dies, and confusions which can easily arise at a later date.