Expert: Steven Taylor - 6/20/2009

Question
We are trying to help an old gentleman sort out his financial status and have found in his safety deposit box 2400 preferred share certificates dated 1971 and 300 class A certificates dated 1965, for the company called Finlayson Enterprises Ltd. This company is not listed on the TSX so we are trying to determine if these have any value.

Answer
James, from the information I have available, it appears there may have been some value to those shares at one time. There might still be, but due to the time that has passed, the money may no longer be available.

Finlayson went private in 1986 through a merger with a numbered company. Common shareholders received 166 common shares for each share of Finlayson held, and preferred shareholders received 10 common for each preferred held. Assuming there were no reverse splits in between the time this gentleman acquired the shares and the buyout, he would have been issued 73,800 shares of the new company. Those shares were subsequently bought back for 10 cents per share. That would mean he was due $7,380.

It is possible he was sent a check for that amount back in 1986. Or, if they could not find him to pay him, they would have turned the money over to the government for safekeeping for a period of time in case he determined that he was owed the money and went looking for it. Therefore, he needs to search the missing property department of every State or Province in which he was a resident from the time he first bought shares in Finlayson until the acquisition - the company would have turned the funds over to the government of his last known residence or the Province in which the Transfer Agent was headquartered or, in rare cases, in which the company was located. It could be in several different places just to start. Keep in mind, though, that the laws vary by State and Province - some keep missing money for only a short time, while others will keep it in safekeeping indefinitely.

Most states and some Provinces have their records available to search for free online. You can try www.naupa.org or www.missingmoney.com (I give both addresses, as there is some governments that participate in one and not the other). If you need to search a government that is not participating in the program, you will have to contact them directly.

Search for the property using the name exactly as it appears on the certificates, even if the name is abbreviated or misspelled, as that is the name that the property will be indexed under.