Expert: Steven Taylor - 8/21/2009

Question
Is there any value in the shares of American Leduc Petroleums Ltd acquired by my dad in June 1956?  If so, how should I go about redeeming the stock?

 I have found that American Leduc was acquired by Veteran Resources in 2003 who were in turn acquired by Bear Ridge Resources in November 2005.  Bear Ridge changed its name to Sabretooth Resources in August 2007 and, later in the same year, were acquired by Cequence Energy.

Answer
Bruce, American Leduc was acquired by Veteran in October 2003 for 23 cents per share cash. Therefore, the remainder of the string of acquisitions is moot. Assuming your father's certificate was valid at the time of the acquisition, or that he did not already receive a check for his shares, he has 23 cents per share floating around out there.

American Leduc's transfer agent was Computershare (www.computershare.com#. You can check with them and see if they have a record. However, chances are that if they were not able to find your father and pay him, they would have already turned the money over to the government for safekeeping in his name. You need to search the lost property divisions of every state and province in which your father lived from the time he first acquired the stock until today. Luckily, most States and a few Provinces have joined forces and put that information on line for free. Go to www.missingmoney.com AND www.naupa.org #each site has different States and Provinces) to search. Use the name EXACTLY as it appears on the stock certificate - even if it is misspelled or abbreviated, as that is the name the transfer agent and the government would have assigned to the money.