Selling Paper Stock Certificates

May 10, 2018 2:14 PM

I have to sell some stocks for an estate. I have the paper stock certificate. I have no idea what I'm doing.

I've been closing up my father's estate for the past year, and the last thing left is to sell a paper stock certificate with a number of shares worth around $13k. I've been dragging my feet on it for the past few months because the whole thing is totally beyond me, as I'm way out of my depth as a not very financially savvy person. The institution that issued them does not have an internal buyback program, which was the first thing I checked.

Everything I've read online makes this sound like it's just not a great situation since I'm not planning a long-term relationship with a brokerage, and they'll likely take a large chunk of it. There seems to be a decent amount of information out there, but so much of it is over my head. I need the "explain it like I'm 5" version of this, or just given a direction on what sort of financial institution to go to find the right person to talk to. I spoke to my bank (Chase) and they said they don't handle matters like this.

This is so far outside of my comfort zone, and the lawyer overseeing the estate essentially told me "just sell the stocks", so I'm a bit rudderless. Is this the sort of thing I walk into a TD Ameritrade for? Or something I hire a financial advisor for? Or something I can do online? Or... what?

posted by gregoryg to Work & Money (16 answers total)

Key question: is it a publicly traded company? if it is traded on a public stock exchange, that is the place to sell it. If not, then there are some further considerations.
posted by yclipse at 2:23 PM on May 10, 2018

Post this over at r/pf and they'll tell you how to do it easily and with minimal cost.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 2:26 PM on May 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Many banks have a brokerage arm - mine does and it’s a mid-sized local bank. If you have accounts or a relationship with the back, they may help with the transaction (of course, for the usual brokerage fees).
posted by sudogeek at 2:27 PM on May 10, 2018

Find the company that he had the stock in and call them. There's a decent chance they have his stock ownership on record, and they may be able to tell you how to sell it. Grandpa had some paper stocks, but when we called, their automated system knew exactly how many shares he had. Estates holding paper stock certificates is not an uncommon thing.
posted by azpenguin at 3:06 PM on May 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty sure you can sell this thru any brokerage. Getting a brokerage account is fairly easy; a little more paperwork than getting a bank account, and not as much as applying for a mortgage. Open the account, deposit/mail in the certificate(s), sell, cash out and close the account (or not). Might be overkill, but it would be doable. It's be a long time since I've sold stock, but it was around $15-$20 a trade for E*trade.
posted by Pig Tail Orchestra at 3:07 PM on May 10, 2018

Response by poster: @Pig Tail Orchestra: from some reading, it looked like I wouldn't be able to do Etrade with a paper certificate, is that correct? Otherwise, I could do all of that by just heading into TD Ameritrade, right? They're the brokerage around me that seems most institutional.

Some quick followups to your questions:

- It is a publicly traded company, on the NYSE. As I'm quite new to this, I don't know what next steps that I would take, that being true.
- I called the company that issued the stock, but they weren't any help. I could definitely try them again if I know what to ask, but at that time I wasn't able to get much advice out of them. It didn't help that they're a French-Canadian company whose customer service representative's English was difficult to understand.
- The only financial institution I currently use is Chase and they said they didn't deal with paper certificates.

I'll let this question run it's course and then I'll definitely look into r/pf. Thanks so far!
posted by gregoryg at 3:15 PM on May 10, 2018

There is usually a shareholder services listing in the investor relations section of the website, they should be able to help.
posted by JPD at 3:23 PM on May 10, 2018

Best answer: How to do this with a Vanguard brokerage account; with a Fidelity account. Open one of those, follow instructions, then you can sell the stock. All you're really doing is converting the (old-fashioned) paper evidence of your holding to the (far-more-common) electronic record thereof. It's analogous to depositing a written paper check. You will pay a brokerage fee when you sell. At Vanguard, it shouldn't be shockingly high.
posted by praemunire at 3:58 PM on May 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

Agree with sudogeek about trying a bank with a financial management division. Another option is a storefront brokerage like Edward Jones. As far as I know, TD Ameritrade is online only, so there is no door to “head into.” You probably can benefit from a face to face discussion.
posted by yclipse at 4:54 PM on May 10, 2018

Best answer: You may need to open a new account in the name of the estate since the stock certificates are in your father's names. Once you open the account, you can deposit the certificate into the account and once the deposit is completed then you can sell the shares. You saw the links above on how to deposit the certificates with Vanguard and ETrade. So start by picking the mainstream low cost broker that you want to work with and then call their customer service and ask them to tell you how to do this and exactly what forms to use. Once the certificate is deposited, you will now have electronic shares instead of paper shares and the trade is easy. After the trade is completed, you can distribute the money and then later close the account. If the folks you call won't walk you through this, hang up and call someone else. It will no doubt involve a bit of paperwork but if you are patient it shouldn't be hard.

Probably not something a 5 year old can do but now that you have a better sense of what you need, I'm sure you can find someone from the specific broker to walk you through the rest of it.
posted by metahawk at 5:43 PM on May 10, 2018

Best answer: Yes, TD Ameritrade has branch offices that you can walk into. I think that would be easier than doing it by mail, and it's not likely to cost a lot. You'll probably, as metahawk said, need to open it in the name of the estate, and provide them with some paperwork showing that you have the right to act for the estate.
posted by Jasper Fnorde at 6:15 PM on May 10, 2018

I had a paper share of a vanity stock at one point, and I thought I had mailed it in to my brokerage. I've only had E*trade and OptionsXpress, so unless my memory is faulty, I used one of them to liquidate it. This was many years ago though.
posted by Pig Tail Orchestra at 6:35 PM on May 10, 2018

You may need to first convert these to book shares via the company (or its agent). After that, moving them around should be easier because they are electronic.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:35 PM on May 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

If TD Ameritrade or similar will do this for you, take them on it. If they won't, then you can probably find the company transfer agent by searching something like "company name" "investor relations" "transfer agent". They should be able to help convert the shares to electronic form, and which would make them salable.
posted by whisk(e)y neat at 6:39 PM on May 10, 2018

Best answer: I am a licensed broker, I am not your licensed broker, this is not financial advice, blah blah blah.

What metahawk said is exactly it. You'll need to open an estate account. You can go it directly through the transfer agent, but depending on the transfer agent, it's actually going to be a lot easier to open the estate account.
posted by Ruki at 7:16 PM on May 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: This has been so helpful, all. Thanks so much! Hopefully this will be an overall educational experience and I can start to get some smarts around this stuff for my future personal use as well. If only I had paid attention in that financial management class in middle school...
posted by gregoryg at 7:46 AM on May 11, 2018