My husband and I got divorced in 2004. Prior to that I had invested in stocks and put them in both our names. He's left the country and I don't know where he is... it's a divident reinvestment plan and I am very reluctant to feed it, since his name is on the account. How do I get his name off the account. (I had to place ads in newspapers to just to get my divorce.)

Did your divorce address your assets?

Talk to the dividend reinvestment plan administartor - you should be able to find a phone number for customer service on their web site. Your divorce decree should mandate what happens with your joint accounts - if it says you get the assets in this account then no problem. But even if it doesn't - since this is a joint account you have the authority to cash out any time you want (so does your ex), so you can simply either withdraw all the stocks and cash or roll it to a new individual account in your name if you want. Again, call customer service.

Frankly, it was such a minimal amount, that I doubt it was even listed in the divorce. Since he took off, which in reality was abandonment, I got everything, kids, house and a lot of debt.

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Originally Posted by PamelaSde

Frankly, it was such a minimal amount, that I doubt it was even listed in the divorce. Since he took off, which in reality was abandonment, I got everything, kids, house and a lot of debt.

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I'm certainly sympathetic to this situation but, small or not, all assets should have been addressed.

At any rate, I would follow the advice above.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! You were right! I didn't need him involved. I went to the Computershare website listed on my statement and I was able to transfer the shares online into my name only. Took less than 10 minutes!

Opps... hold on. In looking over the paperwork, it says the "signitures below on this Transfer Request form must correspond exactly with name(s) shown upon the face of the stock certificate or a Computershare-issued statement for book-entry shares, without or enlargement or any change whatsoever. The below must be signed by all current resistered holders, or a legally authorized representative with indication of his or her capacity next to the signature.
Note: Signature(s) must be stamped with a Medallion Signature Guarantee by a qualifed financial institution...

Does this mean I need his signature? Or am I the legally authorized representative? Under what capacity?

My experience with Computershare is that they are absolutely the most picky about things like Medallion Signature guarantees when changing account owners. Perhaps you can short circuit by having them sell the shares rather than transferring them to a new account - that should not require both signatures (although it really depends on how the account is titled). You should also review your divorce decree and see if it doesn't actually give you ownership of these jointly held assets, because if it does then you should be able to work with ComputerShare's customer service to make the transfer without his signature.

It all depends on how the divorce decree is written. If, in fact, it's silent about these stocks (and I'm addressing NY) you cannot sell/transfer them by signing his name. You do not have the authority to put them in your name (or anything else) without the Court's permission.

And, of course, it depends on how the stocks are held - jointly or something else.