CGT on Shares where info not available

[peter@2711.co.uk]

Elderly friend; no interest in shares; proposes to sell all his 17 Shareholdings ( value c£0.5m ) and distribute the money to his family. He received some money in the 1980s &1990s ( est £150K ) ; gave to small local stockbrokers to invest for him.
These brokers were taken over; then new Brokers taken over; taken over by Internet Broker; and then by another internet broker. Shares are now shown as "free transfer" so that most of the portfolio value is shown as "profit". Presumably this could lead to great difficulty in producing a CGT return and any advice would be appreciated.

[darthblingbling]

Have you tried asking the current broker for this information?

Do you not have any information on the original transactions in writing?

[peter@2711.co.uk]

Yes. You have to make a special application to get old information from Broker 3 but they are only expected to show a similar portfolio to current . Brokers 3 and 4 were for the Client to trade ( no trading) - Brokers 1 & 2 had discretionary powers.
Currently looking through lots of old paperwork. Have found 3 old copy contract notes, but these don't tie up with current holdings.

[peter@2711.co.uk]

Have now found 2 Second Alliance Contract notes from July 2002 & Jan 2003. ( I think that many years ago 2nd Alliance took over Alliance and changed its name to Alliance.) With reinvestment of Dividends, I estimate there were at least 40 Alliance trades over the years. Company Secretary of Alliance has consulted the Registrar to be informed that the Register of Shareholders only lists the name of the Stockbroker's Nominee Company and makes no mention of the underlying holder. Therse shares would be going back 4 Nominee Companies. It is looking impossible to make a CGT calculation here.

[The Ivy Office Ltd]

If you can reasonably prove that they were bought pre 1982 you can use the market value at that date. 31st March 1982,

This value can be provided but care needs to be taken if there were takeovers and share reorganisations
dennis@taxesclear.co.uk

[peter@2711.co.uk]

Thanks, Ivy Office. The "missing" transaction details seem to be in the 30 years from 1985 to 2015. Corporate Reorganisations seem well documented ( like the 2nd Alliance/Alliance Merger and the subsequent 1 for 10 split ). However it seems almost impossible to trace small shareholder transactions through nominee companies.