Why share registries aren't enough

Share registries such as Computershare, Boardroom and MUFG Corporate Markets (formerly known as Link Market Services) play an extremely important role for shareholders. Acting as the official record-keepers for companies, they are responsible for tasks such as processing dividend payments, handling corporate actions and sending communications to shareholders. While they allow investors to view their holdings, as well as their dividend statements, by no means do they provide investors with a complete view of their portfolio.

In this article we will explain exactly what share registries are responsible for, what they aren’t, and why share registries are not a substitute for a portfolio tracker.

The role of share registries

Shareholder record-keeping

It is the responsibility of share registries (or stock transfer agents) to keep records of who owns which shares and how many. They track employee share option plans and dividend investment plans, while also working with the investor relations departments of listed companies. Having an independent third party perform this role is crucial, as there is a lot of complexity involved, as well as legal and tax implications.

What share registries can’t do

Portfolio management

While record-keeping is their strength, share registries aren’t in the business of providing investor-facing websites or tools. While you can log in and access basic information, there are crucial information gaps. The sites also don’t offer much in terms of functionality — they simply provide you with a snapshot of today’s facts. Because share registries make money from listed companies, not investors, they have little incentive to provide investors with a portfolio management service. As such, their investor-facing tools are built for bookkeeping, not investing.

Performance tracking

If you log into most share registries, you will notice their limitations. Essentially, based on a single HIN or SRN, you can see the number of units held in an asset, a transaction date, and the market price (but not the original purchase price). This means that there is no information about your cost basis. The dividend information is also limited to the net amount, and none of the data is editable.

In other words, there is no information about your capital gains or losses, your tax position, or the impact of income on your portfolio.

Data visibility

Your share registry account is tied to a single HIN or SRN, which means that if you have multiple entities (for example your personal name, an SMSF and a trust), you have to log in multiple times. To complicate things even further, if you have multiple assets in your portfolio, then chances are that some of your assets will belong to different share registries, which means you will need to log into more than one site. And unfortunately these sites don’t “talk” to one another.

This creates an admin burden where some information lives on your brokerage platform (or platforms), some with the share registries, and maybe even some on paper. Sharesight’s portfolio tracker works by combining all sources of data to form a complete and personalised portfolio record. Once you’ve imported all your trades, you can rely on Sharesight to be a single source of truth going forward.

Using share registries to verify your portfolio data

Using share registry websites can be a helpful step in verifying the accuracy of the portfolio data you’ve added into Sharesight. If you’ve imported trades via spreadsheet, trade confirmation emails or even manually, it’s recommended that you cross-check your portfolio with the registries once a year.

Note: You can find registry information in Sharesight. Simply click into the asset of your choice and scroll down to ‘Asset classifications’, where you will find the name of the registry your asset belongs to.

A share registry is no substitute for a portfolio tracker

Share registries have an important role to play, but they are no substitute for a comprehensive portfolio tracking solution like Sharesight. Not only does Sharesight bring together information from multiple registries and brokers, but it also allows you to track the price and performance of your investments across different asset classes, markets and currencies — all in one place. This reduces tedious portfolio admin while providing you with the full picture of your investments, allowing you to make smarter investment decisions and save time and money at tax time.

Track all your investments in one place with Sharesight

If you’re not already using Sharesight, what are you waiting for? Join hundreds of thousands of investors worldwide using Sharesight to track the price, performance and tax implications of all their investments in one place.

Sign up for a free Sharesight account to get started tracking your investments today.

FURTHER READING

• 6 key metrics every dividend investor must track
• Why Sharesight is the best multi-asset portfolio tracker
• Turn market volatility into opportunity with Sharesight