Commonwealth Bank Australia Shares Advice
Hi, I am hoping People can help me with this matter.
My mother passed away in December 2025 and when I went through her paperwork, I found this share certificate for what appears to be 272 shares in the Commonwealth Bank Australia but they are still in my father's name who died in 2017. It seems that he purchased these shares sometime in the 1990s on the advice of his accountant as he was self-employed at the time and they appeared to be a better option than saving his money in a building society or bank. Obviously, she never transferred these into her own name after my father died but the account was definitely still active very recently as I have seen dividend payments (albeit very small ones) on her bank statement (which was once their joint account). I don’t remember my dad ever writing a will but I do know that everything he owned passed straight to my mum when he died.
We did discuss these shares (amongst others that are in her name) a few years ago when she was still alive but she didn't really know what to do with them and I never had time to pursue this at the time. My mother was not tech savvy and just kept saying to me that I apparently needed to “go online” to change them into her name. The only other paperwork I have for this is some paper statements that came annually. As she got older, she was reluctant to discuss finances much at all.
My question is: does anyone know what I need to do to close or liquidate this account? Can I just sell them back to the bank? Do they need to be transferred into my name first etc etc?
It seems that these shares are now administered by MUFG corporate markets limited in Australia though I'm sure they would have been purchased in the UK. I have emailed them once or twice but every e-mail takes two weeks to receive a reply and they seem to think I just want to transfer them into my name. I have two siblings so the ownership of these shares in theory needs to be split between the three of us and it would appear that the price for individual shares waivers around the $165AUD mark but I could be wrong about this as UK based shares seem to be priced in pence rather than pounds though as I read it these shares are priced in Australian dollars. I'm really just at a loss as to how to deal with this as I know very little (if anyone about stocks shares etc) so any advice would be gratefully received.