Nominee / Street name accounts

[gizmo_rat]

Something thats been bugging me for a while is the difficulty of holding your paper assets in your own name.

I'm just not completely comfortable with the way nominee accounts are the default way to hold your assets. I'm finding a lack of transparency in the benefits / risks that come with them.

In the UK Securities (stocks and gilts) held in an ISA and SIPP have to be held in a nominee account, end of story. All you can do is spread your risk and keep each account value under the limit of FSCS compensation (currently £50,000).

Securities  held outside of these wrappers can be held through a broker that sponsors personal crest accounts.  (Crest is the central securities depository for the UK)

A personal CREST account reduces counter party risk but doesn't completely eliminate fraud as the sponsoring broker has access to it, so the £50 000 limit still applies.

You can search for brokers providing CREST personal accounts through their trade association.
http://www.apcims.co.uk/buy-and-sell-sh ... nd-a-firm/