Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by roenxi 512 days ago
Companies literally keep a big list of all the people who have shares and how many, in case they want to send out a dividend or something. If they think it is important to check it is easy to do once they have a name. Realistically the cost of checking is probably higher than just dealing with the issue at hand so they won't.

Though it is impolite to lie.

2 comments

Stocks are generally held in the name of the broker (“street name”), not the individual. I’m not saying they can’t check but I wouldn’t bet on them calling up Schwab to verify you really own 10 shares of UAL.
>Companies literally keep a big list of all the people who have shares and how many, in case they want to send out a dividend or something. If they think it is important to check it is easy to do once they have a name.

I thought companies only knew the brokerage, and it was the brokerage who could tie it back to a specific person ?