Two different paths, and a signature guarantee most people have never heard of.
Securities held in a brokerage account are usually moved by retitling the account itself, using the brokerage’s own trust transfer packet. Shares held directly with a company’s transfer agent are moved by a stock power sent to the transfer agent, which will normally require a medallion signature guarantee. Either way, the transfer is finished when the updated registration or a statement shows the position in the trust’s name.
Every large brokerage has one. Some retitle the existing account, others open a new account in the trust’s name and transfer positions across. Ask which, because a new account number changes the paperwork downstream.
Usually a certification of trust rather than the whole instrument, showing the trust name, its date, the trustee, and the trustee’s powers. Some brokerages still ask for the full document.
The current owner signs to transfer, and the trustee signs to accept and to open. When they are the same person, the record should still show two signatures for two roles.
Ask in writing whether anything will be sold. Cost basis should carry across, and a forced liquidation is a tax event nobody planned for.
The account name on the statement is the proof. Brokerages sometimes keep the old number and change only the registration, which is fine, but then the name is the only thing that tells you.
Shares held directly are moved by instructing the transfer agent, and the transfer agent is protecting the company against a forged transfer. That is why this path is slower and stricter than the brokerage one.
If a certificate cannot be found, the agent will require an affidavit of loss and normally a surety bond priced against the value of the shares. Start that before the rest of the funding, because it sets the schedule.
A medallion guarantee is a stamp from a financial institution that stands behind two things: that the signature is genuine, and that the signer has the authority to make the transfer. The institution takes on liability when it stamps, which is why it will not do it for someone it does not know.
The programs are recognized under the SEC rule that lets transfer agents set standards for the guarantees they accept. Each stamp carries a coverage limit by dollar value, so a large transfer can be refused by an institution that would guarantee a small one.
Not the mailing receipt, and not the confirmation that a packet was received. The evidence is the registration itself.
The second line is the state most stock transfers live in for a few weeks. It is a normal state. What makes it a problem is leaving it unwatched, because a transfer agent that rejected the packet for a missing tax form will not call to say so.
This is an explanation of how a transaction works, not legal or tax advice. Termn is not a law firm, a bank, an escrow agent, or a money transmitter, and it never holds your money. What is right for your situation is a question for your own counsel, who decides it and drafts the documents that carry it.
Termn runs a stock transfer as its own tracked sequence: the packet, the signature in each capacity, the submission, and the transfer agent’s updated registration coming back.
How Termn runs trust funding Your first workspace is free, and nothing goes out until you send it.
A signed trust that owns nothing does nothing. Funding is the transfer work.
Signing a deed does not move the property. Recording is what the world can see.
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The asset-by-asset checklist, and what counts as proof. Free PDF, emailed to you.
Everything else is in the learning center.
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