Contacting Vodafone & Verizon about shares where owner has died

Hello. I and my brother are the executors of my father's will. I recently discovered my father has a small quantity of both Vodafone and Verizon shares, presumably as a result of having bough Eircom shares when it floated. I have not found any paperwork related to these shares among my father's papers, the only reason I know he had them is because a dividend cheque arrives a few times a year at his address (my brother lives there now). The cheques, for small amounts, have not been cashed.

What can I do to let Vodafone and Verizon know that the owner of the shares has died?

What will Vodafone and Verizon do once they get this information. In particular will they transfer ownership to the executors? What documentation would they need in order to do this?

In case it is pertinent to the above questions, my father died over two years ago and we do not yet have probate. There is no particular problem or complexity with the will and estate, the reason for the delay in probate is purely down to tardiness on the part of myself and my brother I'm afraid. But trying to get it sorted now.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Vodafone sold its stake in Verizon 10+ years ago, & shareholders had the option of taking cash or Verizon shares, so that's probably how your father came to have the Verizon. Re vodafone, the online shares used to be managed by Computershare & then got transferred to Equiniti in UK. If the dividends are getting sent from UK, you could try them to see if they know anything...
https://www.shareview.co.uk/4/Info/...avementsupport/Pages/Bereavement-Support.aspx
If its paper shares then I've no idea where you start...so this is probably not much help

1. Equiniti Shareview became the share registrar for Vodafone in 2018. Before that it was Computershare.

2. Computershare are the share registrar for Verizon.

So you need to inform Equiniti of the shareholder’s death and what you need to do to transfer share ownership to the executor, etc. See Shareholder FAQs | Vodafone IR and Redirecting to Equiniti End of Life Services. Similarly for Verizon shares you need to contact Computershare at Welcome to Computershare.

@JMG. My condolences on your loss. I was in a similar situation in 2015 when my partner passed away. I learned he had 229 Vodafone shares. Not a lot. I made the mistake of transferring them to my name and paid a hefty price for the privilege. My solicitor was handling the Probate. Maybe I could have had it done cheaper, I don't know. All I know is that it wiped out the pittance of returns it was earning and some of the initial investment. Just yesterday, I was looking to cash in the little I have left as the interest rate wouldn't even buy a postage stamp. If, I'm not mistaken there is a commission taken for the selling and transferring shares which I have yet to know how to do and its not cheap. If what I am reading is for real, it frankly might leave me with just enough to buy a cup of coffee, if I'm lucky. The commission fees are obscenely high compared to what you will earn year on year. From a personal p.o.v. I wish I had sold the shares 9 years ago and got out then. I hope this helps but please do your own homework, as I may have got the wrong end of the stick, or there may be another way around the commission and fees if you have a small shareholding. Please share your own experience should you be willing. I'm still trying to figure out how to get out with minimum damage to my pocket. Good luck.

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To followup on my previous message, I just got a reply from Equiniti Shareview who appear to be the ones managing my shares in response to my query about how to sell my shares. I have copied and pasted their reply here below, if it helps ...

"I can confirm that if your shares are held in a Vodafone Share Account (VSA), you can sell via telephone (of which there is a 1% comission fee with a minimum of £20) or via the Postal Sharedealing method (of which there is a 1.5% commission fee with a minimum of £50). If you prefer to sell via telephone the best contact number is +44 121 415 7047. However, if you have a certificated shareholding, you can only sell via the Postal Sharedealing Service. Many thanks - Equiniti."

I had a similar experience as Cooler-Box, don't think I even had the price of a coffee left.
My father passed away two years ago. We decided to donate his shares to the Laura Lynn Children's Hospice we used https://www.sharegift.org/charities-we-support/

@ 7of9 - Certainly worth it if they waive their fee as it wouldnt be worth it otherwise. I would much rather a charity benefit than the deep pockets of unscrupulous brokers.

Thanks for this thread - both my parents are deceased (my father over 20 years ago and my mother a few years ago) and there are still Vodafone shares (plus regular dividend reinvestments) in their names. I remember trying to sort out my father's stuff years ago so that his shares could be put into my mother's name or donated to charity and I gave up as it was so much hassle with the registrar at the time (maybe Computershare unless they had a different one before them?). Plus I still have some shares of my own in paper form which I would like to convert to digital and/or just sell. So I will chase up the links mentioned above and see how I get on.