Nominee Accounts

Chas Stanley Prices Crest Membership At Ridiculous Level

Post Date: May 19, 2019

Charles Stanley have sent out a letter to all their customers who use Personal Crest accounts that in future they will be charged £504 per annum (inc. VAT). Although the company stopped offering the service to new customers some time ago, existing users have in some cases been paying nothing to be a Personal Crest member. They clearly want to get rid of all such users of their service, include those using the low-cost Chas Stanley Direct platform because £504 is ...

The Unstoppable Glacier of Government’s Concerted Actions?

Post Date: March 5, 2019

By Cliff Weight, Director, ShareSoc We sometimes see things changing at a glacier-like pace. But once a glacier starts moving it has huge momentum and is unstoppable. My question is: is this metaphor applicable to the way Government is behaving with regard to business? The civil servants who drive Government policy transcend the short lives of Parliament. Taking this perspective what do we see? My take on this is as follows. The Financial Crisis terrified nearly everyone. We stared into the abyss. We were ...

Missing Dividends

Post Date: November 22, 2018

I talked about having too much cash in my ISA and SIPP accounts in my last blog post. But in fact it’s not as much as it should be because dividends on my ISA holdings in JPMorgan Japan Smaller Companies Trust (JPS) did not arrive as expected. They should have been paid on the 7th November, and were on my direct holding on the register but not on my ISA ones. The ISA ones are held in two different ISA accounts ...

Shareholder rights, letters to MPs and questions at AGMs – An Update

Post Date: August 17, 2018

Over 20 members have to my knowledge written to their MPs (as we requested) and a number of members have asked questions at AGMs. We have certainly raised the issue. The Minister (or most likely his civil servants) have produced what looks like a standard response which is being sent to those MPs who contacted Greg Clarke MP, the Secretary of State. Their response argues that the UK does not have to follow the intent of the EU Shareholder Rights Directive and ...

Premier Foods, stock lending, custodians, shareholder rights and nominee accounts

Post Date: July 25, 2018

The background to my comments is below: KATE BURGESS in the FT on 15 July 2018 reported that accusations of empty voting — where investors borrow voting shares for short periods to swing the outcome at meetings —reverberated around the market ahead of Premier Food’s shareholder meeting next week. They were sparked when Oasis Management , the Hong Kong activist hoping to unseat Premier’s chief executive Gavin Darby, said it had increased its stake in the owner of Angel Delight from 9 to ...

ShareDeal Active Nominee Account

Post Date: September 10, 2017

I have (belatedly) decided to register with PrimaryBid and spotted that if I would you like my shares to be settled and delivered to my Stockbroker TD Waterhouse electronically,...

Fusionex – Another AIM Company Disappears into the Night

Post Date: May 30, 2017

In an announcement late Friday afternoon, after market close and just before the long weekend, AIM listed Fusionex announced that it will seek to delist from the AIM market. It’s not clear why this is good for private investors, the company is profitable and has no need to raise funds. The RNS says that a meeting will take place in Malaysia on 15 June to vote on the matter, and that all of the Directors representing 41.93% of shares are in ...

A General Election – What Should Be In the Manifestos?

Post Date: April 18, 2017

There is to be a General Election on the 8th June in case you have not heard. That has the unfortunate consequence on freezing Government business, with the prospect of changes of Ministers thereafter. Any formal consultations - for example on improved Corporate Governance and remuneration restraints - will be deferred. So the key question now is what would we like to see in the manifestos of the leading political parties? Here's my list: A commitment to ensure that private shareholders in ...

Voting Your Shares – It’s Important!

Post Date: April 6, 2017

The main Annual General Meeting season is now upon us and those investors who hold their shares on the register will have been receiving Annual Reports on paper or electronically. If you hold your shares in a nominee account, some brokers will send you an Annual Report or notify you of when an AGM is coming up. Otherwise you'll need to monitor company announcements. But the key thing is to VOTE YOUR SHARES. You are after all a part owner of the ...

Government Action on Dormant Accounts

Post Date: March 3, 2017

The Government has today reported that as much as £2 billion is sitting idle in dormant accounts such as share trading accounts, ISAs, pensions and insurance products. That includes £715 million alone in investment and wealth management accounts. This is noted by the Independent Dormant Assets Commission set up by the Government which has looked at whether the existing scheme for dormant bank and building society accounts should be extended. Minister for Civil Society, Rob Wilson, suggests that this money could help ...

AIC Response to Green Paper

Post Date: February 28, 2017

The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) have published their response to the Government's Green Paper on Corporate Governance. One recommendation contained therein is that "The AIC also recommends that a detailed study to assess retail investors’ access to voting services on platforms and other nominee account services is undertaken to identify any necessary reforms". This is of course a very positive endorsement of an issue that ShareSoc has been campaigning upon for some time - see our campaign page here: Shareholder ...

Press Release – Response to Green Paper on Corporate Governance

Post Date: February 20, 2017

ShareSoc has today issued the following press release: How to fix the ills of the UK Corporate Governance scene? ShareSoc and UKSA have given their solutions in a response to the Government Green Paper on Corporate Governance Reform. We have emphasised that the following are the key issues: Engagement between shareholders and companies is not working. Shareholders are not exercising effective stewardship and control, and boards are failing to fulfil their fiduciary obligations to members. As a result, public trust in business is ...

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