Issue with transfer of shares from Approved Profit Sharing Scheme

[nody]

Hi,
I have some shares (of the company I work in) which were held in trust by Mercer for 3 years as part of an Approved profit sharing scheme. This scheme is an Ireland only Tax Efficiency program whereby a company bonus is converted into shares and held in trust by Mercer for 3 years. When the 3 years are up the income tax which would have been payable on the shares is written off.
When the shares mature after 3 years Mercer send you out a form requesting you to declare which broker you want the shares transferred to. If you do not decalre any particular broker the matured shares are transferred to Dolmen security stockbrokers by default where an account is set up for you. For the first few years I did not fill out the form and so the shares were transferred to Dolmen by default. After a while I got sick of the charges that Dolmen were applying (that and the fact that they had no online service). I requested Dolmen to transfer all the shares into my Global UBS account (an account set up for us as a company perk, other company shares out of a different work scheme are deposited here). I paid them 75 euro for the privilege of completing this transfer.
When the next batch of shares matured I filled out the form requesting Mercer to transfer the shares to my UBS account. Today I recieved a letter back from them saying this was not possible. The reason given was as follows,exact quote(X = my companys name).
"APSS is an Ireland only Tax Efficiency benifit program. As APSS is not part of the X Global stock program, you cannot use your X Global UBS account for the transfer of APSS shares.
Obviously I want them in my UBS account and not the default Dolmen account because I have the UBS account free of charge. My own opinion is that Mercer get commission off Dolmen for using the as the default stockbroker for transfer. Most people like myself let them get transferred into Dolmen and end up paying alot of charges after. I rekon Mercer dont want me tranferring directly into UBS because they wont get the commision from Dolmen. If I cant transfer them it will cost me 75 euro to get them tranferred from Dolme to UBS after. I will have to pay this everytime shares mature (twice a year) to get them into the UBS account.
One simple question on all this.
How do I find out if this is legal on Mercer's behalf. I have until the 21st of June to get this sorted, otherwise the shares get deposited into Dolmen.

Thanks in advance,
Nody..

 

[zephyro]

Re: Issue with transfer of shares-is this a scam?

FWIW I participated in a similar scheme while with my ex-employer. I submitted the details of my online U.S. broker on the Mercer website and they automatically transferred my shares without a problem.

 

[CCOVICH]

Re: Issue with transfer of shares-is this a scam?

What do the rules of the profit sharing scheme say?

 

[rahoon2]

We had a similar problem at my company (US multinational). We had accounts with a US broker for our Employee Share Purchase Plan but when we went to transfer over our Irish approved profit sharing plan shares the broker told us that we couldn't under US regulations. Our employer had to go back and set up new accounts for us with the broker. So go back to your HR department and check it out with them. If you managed to transfer shares like this before then I suspect you were just lucky.

Similarly about the default broker, ours was chosen by our employer and not Mercer. Anyway I think Mercer would have to declare any commission from Dolmens to you, as a financial intermediary.

 

[GreatDane]

Hi

I thought the APSS was only a vehicle use to hold your shares, for the 3-year period so as to save you paying the tax on them ... the fact that following this 3-year period, they won't transfer the shares to an account situated outside of Ireland sounds weird ?

You mention Mercer told you:

"APSS is an Ireland only Tax Efficiency benifit program. As APSS is not part of the X Global stock program, you cannot use your X Global UBS account for the transfer of APSS shares"

.. this reads to me, like whoever responded to you from Mercer thought you were trying to transfer the shares held and yet to mature from the 3-year wait, into the X Global UBS account.

I'd give Mercer a call and explain to the author of the letter, see if they change their mind. If not, speak to whoever handles the scheme for you in your HR department, as once the shares are released from the APSS then they are your's, to do whatever you wish with afaik.

Cheers

G>