CRH nightmare

Hi - if I am repeating an old thread, please excuse me but i've looked through old threads on this issue and haven't found exactly the details I'm looking for. I am dealing with CRH shares for an elderly relative - she did not deal with them before they transferred to the US. I have only recently found out that - for eg the dollar cheques can't be cashed in her bank! We have decided the best thing to do is to sell them. However a problem has arisen in that the name on her bank account is different to the name on the shares. She has used the Irish version of her name on the shares and her bank account uses the English version - which is the only version she has on official documentation. (this has created a problem in other dealings with financial institutions even here). So, I decided the best thing to do would be to transfer the name on her shares to her English name. Which is where I ran up against the medallion guarantee stamp issue. In my naivete, I thought this was just a stamp from her bank. But it appears not?

My questions - has anyone who didn't transfer the shares to an Irish account before the deadline sold them recently and how did they do this?
Has anyone had to get a medallion guarantee stamp - where did you get such a thing and how much did it cost?
Has anyone done a transfer of name/sale in the one transaction with a stockbroker?

If anyone has been through any of this, I'd appreciate any advice on the easiest way to do it.
I have managed to sort out the US dividend tax issue. But everything else is a mess. For info, she bought around 10k worth of shares around 20 years ago.

Thanks

Maybe stating the obvious but have you considered setting up a bank account in the Irish version of her name or somehow having it added to an existing bank account? Or was that already tried? You might need to visit a branch to do this but I am sure banks have come across this before. Does she have any kind of documentation with the Irish version, even something unofficial like a baptism cert or educational certs?

There was an article in the Irish Times readers financial q&a column a few years back on this very topic. If you have a subscription you can read it here. The general gist of the article is that it's (a) a huge hassle, (b) something you might need a full service broker for and (c) be willing to cough up the guts of €850 just to do a simple sell transaction. Even in the case you're talking about, a name change, I suspect a lot of hassle and expense looms. To answer one of your questions directly, quoting briefly from the paywalled article, "The good news is that Goodbody and Davy provide a service covering the Medallion Guarantee". Good luck!

Does this help?

From https://www.computershare.com/us/what-is-a-medallion-guarantee

(3rd drop down)

Irish resident individuals holding shares of an Irish incorporated company with shares listed on a US stock exchange (NYSE or Nasdaq), may be eligible to use Computershare Ireland to meet the requirement of providing a Medallion Guarantee stamp via an alternative Signature Validation Service (or “SVS”). Eligibility requirements are:

1. Customer has explored obtaining a medallion signature guarantee but was unsuccessful in obtaining one, and
2. Shareholder is an individual and a resident of Ireland
3. The transaction is in relation to the shares of an Irish incorporated company with a share listing on a US exchange (NYSE/Nasdaq), and
4. Total account value is below €62,000
5. The service is not available for transfers from an estate.

Call the shareholder helpline noted on your latest company communication.

Creating a bank account with the English name is a good suggestion from @misemoi.

Hi - @misemoi - the name saga has been going on for some considerable time, and I think we tried the idea of adding the Irish name to the account early on - but the problem is I don't think we've anything official to prove her identity using her irish name. It shouldn't really matter - and obviously in the past it didn't matter. But recently in the context of an attempted transfer, it caused a huge problem. I am getting the impression I ought to try to find some way of sorting it re the shares before going down the medallion guarantee route

confusion162 said:

Hi - @misemoi - the name saga has been going on for some considerable time, and I think we tried the idea of adding the Irish name to the account early on - but the problem is I don't think we've anything official to prove her identity using her irish name. It shouldn't really matter - and obviously in the past it didn't matter. But recently in the context of an attempted transfer, it caused a huge problem. I am getting the impression I ought to try to find some way of sorting it re the shares before going down the medallion guarantee route

Click to expand...

Given how it would simplify the transfer, I would get your relative to speak to someone in a branch of where your relative banks. I can't imagine it is the first time that someone has asked to change their name to the Irish version so they may be able to help and it might not require the level of documentation that you might normally need for a name change. Worth trying anyway and no need to mention the reason why they need to do it. It is a perfectly normal thing to do should the notion take your fancy in a country with another official language.

Not an official source but see below. If you can get the passport done in Irish then you can update the required bank account.


Also found this - 6 months is a long time but maybe in the meantime a utility might accept the name change or to add the name to the account and that might satisfy the bank? Or ask one of the government agencies like HSE to change names? Or maybe get a letter from a solicitor?