Do I need a sharedealing account to receive dividends?

hiigara · Feb 26, 2017

I got some shares from share options, and when I had them at home as share certificates I did not get any dividends. I opened a share dealing account just because I was afraid that I the share certificates could get destroyed or lost.
Once I opened the account with HSBC invest direct, I started getting dividends transferred into my current account, which was nice of course.
But now HSBC is going to close all share dealing accounts of non UK residents, unless they keep depositing £500 monthly into their current account.
I do not wish to transfer money regularly to the UK, so HSBC is either going to sell my shares, allow me to transfer them to another broker, or mail the certificates back to me.
I just want to keep receiving my dividends, that's all, I do not wish to trade.
Sure I could transfer the shares to another broker, but the problem is that most brokers nowadays also are reluctant in taking new accounts from non UK residents.

malaguti · Feb 26, 2017

hiigara said:
I got some shares from share options, and when I had them at home as share certificates I did not get any dividends. I opened a share dealing account just because I was afraid that I the share certificates could get destroyed or lost.
Once I opened the account with HSBC invest direct, I started getting dividends transferred into my current account, which was nice of course.
But now HSBC is going to close all share dealing accounts of non UK residents, unless they keep depositing £500 monthly into their current account.
I do not wish to transfer money regularly to the UK, so HSBC is either going to sell my shares, allow me to transfer them to another broker, or mail the certificates back to me.
I just want to keep receiving my dividends, that's all, I do not wish to trade.
Sure I could transfer the shares to another broker, but the problem is that most brokers nowadays also are reluctant in taking new accounts from non UK residents.

phone the company who's shares you have. every one will have an investors relationship contact person. tell them of the times you didn't receive a dividend and they would most likely investigate for you. possibly, and most companies do this, they have a separate account for dividends that didn't get cashed

keep the certificates if you don't want to use another broker but check with the company, its their responsibility to ensure you get the dividend.
hope it works out for you

tomorton · Feb 26, 2017

hiigara said:
I got some shares from share options, and when I had them at home as share certificates I did not get any dividends.

Its the ownership of the shares that entitles you to the dividends, not having a share dealing account. But not all types of shares have dividend rights attached, and you will need to check this. On top of that, there could be a condition from the date of issue that dividends you were entitled to would be re-invested.

Remember, dividend payments are counted as income for income tax purposes, which could influence a decision on when to take the payments.

malaguti · Feb 26, 2017

tomorton said:
Its the ownership of the shares that entitles you to the dividends, not having a share dealing account. But not all types of shares have dividend rights attached, and you will need to check this. On top of that, there could be a condition from the date of issue that dividends you were entitled to would be re-invested.

Remember, dividend payments are counted as income for income tax purposes, which could influence a decision on when to take the payments.

trouble is Tom, you could be the owner and still never get the shares. comes down to missing address information often. as soon as you have a sharedealing account, the account information is naturally then up to date, which is why he probably started receiving them
if he received a dividend with the broker, he would have the rights to receive the dividend as the share classification wouldn't have changed in a time period

I moved around a lot in and I was in the same boat of missing out, simply because they never knew where to send the cheque!

there may have been years where dividends were never paid, that could also account for not receiving them, and also as you say they could well have been reinvested, but then his amounts would have been increasing

Do I need a sharedealing account to receive dividends?

hiigara

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malaguti

tomorton

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malaguti

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