Nominee accounts, paper certs and crest

I wish to invest some long term funds as part of a pension pot in some blue chips that are paying decent dividends.

I don't want the shares to be held in a brokerage nominee account for two reasons - I consider these accounts an additional risk (brokerage insolvency or fraud) and also want to avoid annual charges, and also being in a nominee account means I don't get annual reports etc.

What are the issues concerning obtaining paper share certificates - cost, available brokers? I know they are slower to sell but as I won't be trading this is not a problem.
Secondly, how safe is crest? Is it just an electronic register and what are the advanteges vs nominee accounts or paper certificates. Thanks

Hi donkey

Ten years ago, I did this Key Post:

Share certs/Crest Accounts/Nominee Accounts

I don't think that anything has changed signficantly in the meantime.

If you do further research, I would welcome any suggestions for improving the Key Post.

Brendan

Thanks Brendan, As far as I can see your post is still valid, though I haven't got any information on the availability or practicability of the various methods. My current online broker only works with nominee accounts.

I did realise, however that I do have some shares in crest - some old oil shares from the 1980s which dropped so much in value that they were not worth selling and then were taken over several times. As some stage I must have signed a form to change the certs to crest because I now get crest documentation for them.

This makes me wonder about the statement in your post "Brokers charge €50 to set an account up for you and €50 a year admin fee." as I certainly didnt pay anybody to set up the accont or pay a management fee. (the shares in the account are hardly worth €50). Perhaps it is that brokers charge this but there are other (no cost) ways to use the service?