Expert: Steven Taylor - 3/30/2009

Question
recently my father passed away,while cleaning up all his stuff we came across some old stock certificates, they are dated back to late fifties and early sixties. how do i go about finding out if they still exist or have already been cashed in.

Answer
Fiona, a company's transfer agent is the only entity that can tell you for certain if a specific certificate has value or not. They maintain the shareholder's list against the list of issued certificate, and maintain the transfer ledger.

However, in order to find the current transfer agent, you will have to know if the Company is still in business and, if so, what its current name is. For that I suggest you enlist the help of a broker who will be able to trace the company from your certificates and determine if they are still around. If so, they can also determine who the current transfer agent is and help you contact them for more information.