November 2, 2015 Alok Gupta Sale & Transfer of Investment Securities, Sale of Investment Securities, Transfer of Investment Securities

Recovering Dividends in Australia

When an estate has been inactive for some time, uncollected dividends must be paid to the Australian Securities & Investment Commission.

Prior to 1991, uncollected monies were dealt with at the State Level instead of the central Commission. So if you have to claim back dividends due before 1991, you have to trace the uncollected funds from each individual State.

There is also the problem of recovering small dividend cheques.

We’ve seen a case where lawyers simply waited until there was about A$100 due to the estate to request for one single cheque to be re-issued. At first the share registrars refused, but when the lawyers pointed out the on-going costs problem of the un-presented cheques, a single large cheque arrived.