Transferring stock from an UTMA into grown children's names

[quelinda]

When my stepkids were little, we bought stock for them under UTMA accounts with my husband as custodian. Now that they are adults, we wanted to hand the stock off to them & were told that we would need to transfer the shares into their names, which we did.

About a week later we got checks for each of their accounts, payable to "Dad cust. Son UTMA." The forms have a bunch of information on them about the shares sold, the price per share, the gross amount of sale, the trading fees, etc.

I'm confused about this. The checks are for about $50, and their stock shares are worth about $850. Can someone explain why we got them?

Also, will we need the (now grown) boys to sign the check along with my husband?

[beltim]

If they were held in a DRIP (dividend reinvestment plan), the check is probably for the liquidation of any fractional shares, because most brokers won' transfer fractional shares when they transfer whole shares.  But shouldn't it say this on the statement?

[quelinda]

If they were held in a DRIP (dividend reinvestment plan), the check is probably for the liquidation of any fractional shares, because most brokers won' transfer fractional shares when they transfer whole shares.  But shouldn't it say this on the statement?

It was a DRIP. It doesn't say fractional shares anywhere on it, but it *does* say 0.525830 under "Shares/Units Sold." Thank you! That makes a lot of sense.

Now to figure out if my DH can just cash the check himself & cut a check to his sons. They're about two hours away.

[beltim]

No problem!  My guess is your husband can cash the check directly, since he's listed as custodian on the check itself - but you can always endorse it and ask your bank directly.