Estate planning at Continental Stock Transfer
How to protect 3 Continental Stock Transfer accounts — manage beneficiaries by phone, fund a trust by mail, and file death claims
Shareholder Services
Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, 1 State Street, 30th Floor, New York, NY 10004-1561
Shareholder Services
Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, 1 State Street, 30th Floor, New York, NY 10004-1561
Shareholder Services / Reorganization (Deceased Shareholder / Estate Transfers)
Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, Attn: Reorganization, 1 State Street, 30th Floor, New York, NY 10004-1561
If the deceased held stock directly (not through a broker), Continental Stock Transfer is the company that transfers those shares to the estate or heirs. The transfer is handled by Continental Stock Transfer under its own documentation rules, including medallion signature guarantees.
Account holders can update their beneficiary designations at Continental Stock Transfer by mail and by phone. Accounts can also be retitled into a trust to keep them out of probate entirely.
Continental Stock Transfer has documented procedures for both preparing accounts during your lifetime and handling claims when an account holder passes away.
Preparing your estate
Beneficiaries and trust funding
How to update beneficiaries by phone, fund a trust by mail, and review 3 account types at Continental Stock Transfer.
View details →When someone dies
Death claim process
5-step process, 8 required documents, and contact information for survivors.
View details →Frequently asked questions
Continental requires the probate-court-certified certificate of appointment (Letters Testamentary, Letters of Administration, or equivalent), or a small estate affidavit, to be dated within 60 days of the transfer request. For New York estates the window is 6 months.
Yes. A directly registered account can be re-registered into the name of a revocable living trust using the Stock Power & Instructions package. Continental requires the full trust name, the trustee name(s), the trust creation date, and the first and last pages of the trust agreement (or the pages showing the trustees and the signature page), with the Stock Power stamped with a medallion signature guarantee.
Mail the completed package to Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, Attn: Reorganization, 1 State Street, 30th Floor, New York, NY 10004-1561. The general shareholder line is 1-800-509-5586 (1-212-509-5586 from outside the US and Canada), open Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM ET, and shareholder email is cstmail@continentalstock.com. Some large issuers publish their own toll-free shareholder line on Continental's contact page.
Sources
Data sourced from Continental Stock Transfer primary sources (6 pages reviewed). How we research.
Shareholder Services
Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, 1 State Street, 30th Floor, New York, NY 10004-1561
Shareholder Services
Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, 1 State Street, 30th Floor, New York, NY 10004-1561
Shareholder Services / Reorganization (Deceased Shareholder / Estate Transfers)
Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, Attn: Reorganization, 1 State Street, 30th Floor, New York, NY 10004-1561
Estate planning articles
Learn how to protect your Continental Stock Transfer accounts and other assets with trusts, beneficiary designations, and estate planning documents.
