Ask Paul: How can my mum sell her AMP shares?

Dear Paul,

My elderly mother has a small holding of around 640 AMP shares, which she would now like to sell.

Managing her own financial affairs is becoming too difficult for her, so my wife and I assist her under an enduring power of attorney. 

I'm wondering what would be a simple and cost-effective way to cash these out for her. 

We'd like to pay a minimum in fees and commission so that she can retain maximum benefit. She has no other shares and won't need to do any other trades in the future. - Trevor

This is a good idea, Trevor; AMP shares have been a dreadful investment for the past decade or so.

Sure, they may rise or fall in value in the future, but with a holding of just 640 shares this is hardly likely to make much difference to your mum.

Selling them makes sense to me. I am sure your mum could use a little bit of money, but the real issue is tidying up her financial affairs.

An easy and cheap way of selling would be to look at the share services offered by your bank.

As an example, Commonwealth Bank's CommSec would charge you around $29.95 online to sell her shares, but there are many other companies offering cheap brokerage fees.

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