Every Saturday, one of our journalists answers, in the company of experts, to one of your questions about the economy, finance, markets, etc.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
Following the death of my parents-in-law, we discovered 200 (ordinary) shares bought in 1991 in a company which we do not find on the Internet. They have a Cusip number. How do you know if these actions are value?
Johanne Valin
This is one of those more important questions that they seem, since many people will only be interested in their answer the day they face a similar situation. Not all holders of stock market securities have taken the necessary measures so that their liquidation is done quickly and easily after their death.
Let us add that in our era, where practically all financial activities leave a digital trace, come across paper actions which we do not know where they come from and how much they are worth, it is annoying, but it is obviously worth digging a little.
That said, the key to the enigma for mme Valin is the Cusip number she discovered on the actions she inherited.
A CUSIP number (Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures) is a unique code of nine alphanumeric characters used in North America to identify the securities. This includes shares, obligations and investment funds.
This code facilitates their identification and the regulation of transactions and is used both by banks and by brokerage houses and other financial institutions to manage and follow current and past titles.
-And good news for people in the same situation as our correspondent, “it is entirely possible to find the origin of a financial title from his Cusip number”, explains the trainer and popularizer Michel Villa.
This nine -character code makes it possible to uniquely identify a title issued by a company or an entity. Even if the name of the company on the certificate is no longer topical or the company has been acquired or dissolved, it is often possible to go back to the original issuer thanks to the CUSIP.
If you cannot find any information on a valuable value directly on the Internet, this is normal. “CUSIP databases are protected and accessible only to finance professionals,” he says.
That said, you can try by formulating your web search in a precise way, says Isabelle Fradin, Director of Business Strategy for IG Patrimony Management. “Try looking for the CUSIP number on Google using the“ stock market symbol ”“ Cusip ”number. »»
The Magie de Sedar+
Otherwise, you can contact a broker to simplify your search, or try to access the historical information that certain specialized sites such as that of the Bloomberg and Morningstar agencies hold yourself. All this can cause fees.
Your canada, the Financial Post Each year publishes FP Survey: predecessor & Defunct, which contains historical information on more than 28,000 public companies.
It is also possible to visit the SEDAR+website, the Pan -Canadian Deposit and Information System used by regional securities authorities throughout Canada. The consultation is free and will make it possible to find the available information about the titles and the company sought, in particular a transfer agent capable of informing about the state and the value of the old paper titles.
“The next step is to contact this agent, since it is he who manages things like the fractionation of actions, etc., for the company,” explains Simon Houle, treasurer of the educational organization. Perhaps the company has been acquired by another company and that the action is still worth value. »»
“I would therefore try, in the first place, to find on SEDAR+ this transfer agent. If the titles still have a value, the agent can issue a new certificate, but if the intention is to make a transaction, it is better to have them in a brokerage account since little is done on paper these days. »»
