US share holding - Name change question

[marcusjames]

Hoping someone can advise.

My wife used to work for a US bank and was very fortunate to be given some shares (back in late 90s). She has since changed careers and we've married. She changed UK bank details (HSBC) to her married name soon after we were married.

Dividend cheques have been coming in her maiden name and HSBC have cashed them with no questions; probably as they have records of both names. Suddenly they have refused to bank the cheques.

She called ComputerShare (who manage the share account) to enquire the process about changing shares into her married name. After numerous calls and emails, they have flatly refused to do this as it is against their policy. They claim she would need a US based (not UK branch) solicitor to notarise her name change. This apparently can only be done physically in US at one of four law firms.

I struggle to believe a non-US citizen has never held US shares and then got married.

HSBC have refused to change her account name back (probably understandably) and she is unable to open any other accounts in the old name as there is no up to date ID etc.

Any help appreciated. Thanks.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Where did you marry? It sounds as though the marriage certificate might be "non-UK".

In reality there is no option but to give the Registrar what they are asking for. The thing about "only four firms" sounds wrong - you should go back and try to pin them down on this. However, at the end of the day it's easier to give them what they want than to argue. Notarisation etc is likely to hit you for low £ hundreds.

What seems odd to me is that they haven't offered to accept seeing the original certificate. Maybe they're concerned they wouldn't recognise whether it was actually the real thing or not.

[marcusjames]

We married in Switzerland. They are not yet aware of that, but have refused to accept a marriage certificate. We'll keep pushing for a UK notary and see where that gets us.

Thanks

[Ozzie Osmond]

OK, if push comes to shove I'll be surprised if you can't find a US law firm with an office in Switzerland to tick the necessary boxes.

[jeff m2]

This is probably the fault of the US Homeland security lot.

Can't she just endorse the cheques to herself

[Ozzie Osmond]

jeff m2 said:

Can't she just endorse the cheques to herself

"Up until 1992, there was no reason why a person could not hand over a cheque, made payable to themselves, to someone else for them to pay into their own bank account. You simply had to write the name of the person on the back of the cheque and that was it – job done.

"However, the law has since been changed and now all cheques have to be crossed. You will notice cheques now have crossing lines across them and the account payee printed across the front of the cheque. This move was done as a way to decrease instances of fraud.

"So, this makes it a risk on the bank’s behalf to accept a crossed cheque into the bank account of someone other than the name printed on the front and as a general rule of thumb, they just do not accept them."

OzOs

[All that jazz]

Does she still have any ID in her old name as there are a few ways round the issue if so.

[marcusjames]

All that jazz said:

Does she still have any ID in her old name as there are a few ways round the issue if so.

She has a birth certificate and driving license. However, we've tried to open a new account in her maiden name and the banks are asking for utilities bills less than three months old etc.

[All that jazz]

marcusjames said:

All that jazz said:

Does she still have any ID in her old name as there are a few ways round the issue if so.

She has a birth certificate and driving license. However, we've tried to open a new account in her maiden name and the banks are asking for utilities bills less than three months old etc.

That's easy to work round if you're any good with a scanner and MS Paint . Council tax bills are usually easier to work with though as they're already black and white and usually all text with little in the way of logos. They will accept a recent council tax bill if you tell them the utilities are in your name and not hers. You just need to get creative.