What are the books?

, sometimes referred to as non-certificate shares, the share of books is simply a share that the agent holds, instead of being held by the owner or client. The shares of the books are recorded in records that are maintained by the agent, so there is always a permanent record of the value of shares and who keeps the rights to the shares. However, the actual stock certificates are never printed or handed over to the investor.

Undertificated shares are not unusual at all. One of the more common applications of book shares includes mutual funds. Mutual funds are often used as part of an investment strategy for corporate pension programs. Today, many of these programs allow employees the opportunity to change their preferences on the funds used for their individual share in the pension plan. Obviously, issuing certificates when members of the plan have the opportunity to make changes to the recurring basis to be practical. For this reason, it is easier for the plan to be managed with the sharing of book sharing.

Use for book shares rather than obtaining printed copies of stock certificates does not represent any real risk of loss of control or ownership of shares. Records that are mostly transferred agents are backed up regularly, so even if the main database is lost, the ownership information concerning shares held in trust for clients is easily obtained from one of the backups. Most transfer agents also supply investors with periodic reports in printed and electronic formats, which also serve to document the current status of book sharing.

If the investor wishes to obtain stock certificates for book shares, there is a simple task to ask them from the transfer agent. The agent then takes measures to printed and documented the certificates correctly according to the conditions that are introduced for the country of origin where the shares are issued.