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What should I do with physical share certificates?
– moneysense.ca
When my spouse was a kid, his dad gave him a few physical share certificates of BCE. But this was a long time ago, and he didn’t do anything with them. In fact, he didn’t even know where the actual certificates were.
Recently, he came across the actual share certificates. Now we’re wondering what he should (or can) do with them. He doesn’t have any interest in continuing to own the physical shares, but we have no idea how to convert them into cash or contribute them to a TFSA or RRSP. Can you help?
FPAC response:
Congratulations to you and your spouse! Discovering those BCE certificates must feel like quite a windfall.
BCE (formerly Bell Canada Enterprises) is a publicly traded Canadian holding company for Bell Canada and is one of Canada’s largest corporations.
Your spouse’s stock certificates are pieces of paper that physically represent his ownership shares in BCE. Most shares are issued in electronic form today, but shares from 20 or 30 years ago might have been issued in paper or certificate form…
Why are homes selling for so much higher than the list price?
– moneysense.ca
My spouse and I are trying to buy a home in a hot market (Toronto), and it’s proving to be a challenge. We are both employed with good credit, we have a hefty down payment, and we’ve been pre-approved for a $1-million budget by our lender. However, we have now put in several offers on homes that have been listed within our price range, and we’ve lost out each time to a buyer who pays considerably more for the property—sometimes by hundreds of thousands of dollars. We thought we’d be competitive buyers in today’s market, but now we’re wondering if we need to change our approach. Why are homes today routinely listed so far below their eventual sale price, and what can we do to successfully purchase one?
A real estate agent responds:
First of all, it’s not your imagination: home prices really are higher these days! While Canada’s largest cities, such as the Vancouver and Toronto real estate markets, are notorious for their steep cost of living, the truth is that affordability has dramatically deteriorated across the country over the last few years…
