I'm a mutual fund kind of gal and have never had much truck with individual stocks.
However, at some point in the late 80s or early 90s, based on a "hot tip", my husband's father gifted him a single custodial share in stock. This share has subsequently split a few times, each share throwing off a monthly dividend check for an amount between 10 and 60 cents. These arrived monthly at my in-laws' house, where my MIL bundled them up in a manila envelope that she delivered to my husband some time in the early 2000s. He tried to deposit a couple, was promptly hit by $20 bank fees because the checks were too old, then gave up dealing with them for a decade or two.
To make a long story short, I eventually took over the taxes in our family. After a prolonged struggle, I managed to get dividends reinvested.
Thankfully, the flow of tiny checks stopped. Recently I looked at the transaction history. Indeed, the dividends have been reinvested, but each month the transfer agent, Wells Fargo, seems to be taking a dollar as a transaction fee. Can we reduce this leak? Or should we just sell the stock (will require signatures of both my husband and his father, easier said than done)?
