For a Private Client solicitor, a shoebox full of mixed share certificates is a “loss leader.”
It takes hours of billable time to:
- Identify the current Registrar for 20 different companies.
- Write 20 separate “Letter of Authority” requests.
- Chase the “Date of Death” valuations for IHT412 forms.
- Wait on hold to find out why a dividend cheque was rejected.
The Hidden Cost of Manual Tracing If you charge £250/hour, spending 30 minutes on hold to Equiniti just to verify a £500 holding in BT Group destroys the profitability of the file. Yet, you cannot ignore it due to the duty of care to the estate.
The Risk of “Estimated” Valuations HMRC is increasingly strict on IHT valuations. Guessing the price using a generic “historic data” tool often fails the “Quarter-Up” rule required for formal probate valuations. If you undervalue the estate, you risk penalties. If you overvalue it, your client pays too much tax.
The Divica Pro Workflow We built Divica Pro specifically for estate administration.
- Bulk Upload: Paste a list of 50 tickers or company names (e.g., “Shell, BP, Vod, National Grid”).
- Instant Triage: We instantly sort them by Registrar (Group 1: Equiniti, Group 2: Computershare).
- Document Gen: One click generates the correct, legally worded Letter of Authority for each Registrar, pre-filled with your client’s details.
- IHT Ready: Download a CSV ready for your IHT412 schedule.
Stop treating share administration as a necessary evil. Turn it into a streamlined, profitable part of your probate service.