Legal Question in Business Law in Texas

I will preface this question with a short story about the current situation. My step-father had a prior wife that passed away in 1984. He later remarried my Mother. In 1998 my step-father passed away leaving my Mother his estate and all it's contents. On Sep 4th 2012 sadly my Mother passed leaving me and my wife the estate and contents. I found old stocks with my step-father and first wife that have not been cashed dated from 1957-1960-63-64-65-66. How do I research to see if these old stocks still hold value even if a few of those corp.'s no longer exist?

please offer advice or if it is worth the research.

John


Asked on 10/04/12, 3:14 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Robert Perez Perez Law Office, PLLC

Chances are that many of these stocks have increased significantly in value, if the companies are still in existence. If you have an account with a brokerage firm, you can deposit these certificates in your account - the stockbroker will be able to find out whether they are still being traded, or belong to a renamed or merged company. You may have more shares than you think, due to stock splits, etc.

For the certificates that have no market value, there are collectors out there who might be willing to buy old stock certificates, even from defunct companies...you could try selling those on eBay as well.

Here is a link to an article on the subject in WikiAnswers: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_research_old_stock_certificates

Good luck!

Read more
Answered on 10/04/12, 6:09 pm


Related Questions & Answers

More Business Law questions and answers in Texas