Mechanics of administering stock

[jlevy]

Mechanics of administering stock

[mrmcd]

For public companies actual physical stock certificates are very rare these days. Many won't ever issue physical certificates, and the rest only do so for exorbitant fees. Paper certificates are a huge administrative cost and can also cause confusion over ownership, so most companies now do everything they can discourage the whole endeavor.

Records of who owns how many shares are typically kept electronically with the company's transfer agent, with a clearing house like DTCC, or most commonly held in street name by your broker.

I have no idea how it really works with private companies. I was actually astonished when an acquaintance of mine got a physical certificate after exercising her options for a start she worked at. Presumably these sorts of records would be kept by the company or attorney and copies of documentation to that effect provided to the owner as well.