How do I find my late brother’s lost Santos shares?

Acting as the administrator and next of kin, I recently finalised my late brother’s intestate affairs. It has now come to my attention that he held a small number of Santos shares and was having a modest quarterly dividend paid to a bank account. I cannot find record of these shares, so am unable to sell them and close this last bank account. I have no record of a SRN or Santos information, and the bank statement provides no details. What happens if I cannot get the information? Dying intestate causes all manner of problems, not least of which is for the executor to be able to account for all the assets and investments of the deceased. My suggestion is to contact Computershare Investment Services, the share registry for Santos. They would have records of all shareholders. They should be able to provide some basic information regarding any shares that your brother may have had with Santos. It is likely that they will need to see a copy of the Letters of Administration (or similar) that you have regarding your ability to administrate your brother’s estate, and will also need to successfully identify you to make sure the shares can be traded appropriately.

My wife and I are assettested age pensioners. We want to start an insurance/ investment bond ($100,000) with our soonto-turn eight years old grandchild as the beneficiary when she turns 18. If the bond is in my name as owner, Centrelink still sees it as my asset until it is cashed out or ownership transferred to my granddaughter. From that point is it deemed a deprived asset of $90,000 for another five years or is it the surrender value (minus $10,000 gift limit)? Alternatively I could put the bond in the name of the child’s father (my son) from the start, thereby qualifying as $90,000 deprived asset from day one. Would this decrease my Centrelink assessment earlier (five years vs 15 years) or are there other implications I have not considered?

You are quite correct with your assessment of the gifting rules and its potential impact on your age pension either now or in the future. The only time this would change is if the investment bond owner’s death were to occur within the 10 years, thereby having the investment transfer to your granddaughter without any Centrelink implications. This should not be a reason to invest, or not invest, in your name – more so an observation! By gifting the $100,000 to your son you do trigger the deprivation rules now, and therefore any longterm implications can be forgotten. You should need to consider the age pension income implications before making a final decision. A professional financial planner could assist you with this. Brenton is a director and an authorised representative of Goldsborough Financial Services Limited. His advice should be considered as an opinion. Readers should consider engaging their own personal financial adviser. Questions and answers may have been edited for length.