Customer ReviewsforEQ Unify

FAKE! Using scare tatics. According to EQ Unify, "We are contacting you because your account has been identified as being at high risk of escheatment, a process by which the State claims and becomes owner of you American Depositary Shares ('ADS') in ********** OH REALLY? I get a dividend checks every quarter, plus I get letters on occasion from the corporation on matters dealing with the stocks that I own. And I usually particpate when there is a voting process. Disinformation!

The law regarding when an account is subject to escheat varies by state. The records provided to our firm by the stock transfer agent for BPs American Depository Shares reflects a date of last contact on your account of more than three years ago. Under most state unclaimed property statutes, an automatic recurring deposit of dividends or interest does not establish the owner-initiated contact required to prevent an account from being presumed abandoned and escheated to the state. Our letter serves as both a notice and an offer. As fully disclosed within the letter, if you are not interested in using our services, you can contact the stock transfer agent directly to establish contact on your account and remedy the risk of escheat. If you believe that you have had more recent contact with your account than what is reflected on the transfer agents records, you are again urged to contact them to ensure future qualifying activity is recorded on your account.

Financial abuse of the elderly. 10% transfer fees. Using fear of escheatment to the State, never once do they quote the laws they use.What specific part of the California law authorizes you to send threatening letters of escheatment to your EQ Shareholder Services members?

Our correspondence is sent to any shareholder whose account is at risk of being escheated to the state, regardless of the age of the owner. The law regarding when an account is subject to escheat varies by state. Our outreach provides holders with additional notice regarding their accounts risk status, beyond the statutorily required mailing; as well as offers the opportunity to avail themselves of our services to re-establish account activity or dispose of the account. No fee is incurred unless our services are used. Our letters are not designed to threaten shareholders, but to alert them to the very real risk that their property can be reported and remitted to the state. Once turned over to the state the process to reclaim your shares may become more complicated. In addition, California is required by statute to sell the shares between 18 and 20 months after the date they are reported, and any increase in market value between that sale and your claiming of the shares will be lost to you. Our letter serves as both a notice and an offer. As fully disclosed within the letter, if you are not interested in using our services, you can contact the stock transfer agent directly to establish contact on your account and remedy the risk of escheat.

Wish I could give them a zero! I would advise not to use. They did not provide all of the information concerning the cost (but they did answer my specific questions). Needed stock certificates registered in my name only. The cost was outrageous! I had to keep calling before they would even provide a written proof of the transaction and the costs. No one seemed to know the status or if the transaction was complete. Few months later I found that they did not transfer the voting stock (only the non-voting). When I questioned this, the rep ******** was her name), started yelling at me and the rep from the company which holds the certificates. Poor customer service.

EQ Unify apologies for your recent experience with one of our representatives that did not meet our service standards. We have carefully reviewed your case and want to address your concerns and create a resolution that will satisfy you. A manager will be reaching out to you directly regarding the Non-Voting account ********************** serviced.

I have been trying for weeks to get my wifes stock information She passed away and i need to settle her estate They will not respond I think they are a scam Very sad service *****************************

Hello - Sorry to hear about your recent struggles reaching a representative. We are wondering if you were trying to reach the Transfer Agent, EQ Shareowner Services vs. EQ Unify - as both numbers are provided on our letter depending on how you would like to service the account. Here at **********************, we also have a Voice Mail system allowing you to leave a message if a representative is not available and all calls are usually returned within the same business day (or the following), depending on the time the message was left. We have sent you an email in hopes we can connect you with someone directly to address your questions. Once again, we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused and looking forward to speaking with you.

I'd give zero if I could. I know this company replies to every review saying they're legitimate, that all services are voluntary, and that the service they're offering will help stockholders keep their accounts active. My question is why I should have to contact them to keep me account active? The letter I got says my account has been declared inactive "as a result of no shareholder-initiated contact with EQ Shareholder Services [identified as an affiliated company] within 3 years or more." I've been getting dividends for decades without incident. Why should I suddenly have to contact a company I've never heard of to avoid being declared "inactive" and having my dividends withheld or threat of losing the stock. The whole thing sounds like a setup. Even if there is some legal reason to require something, it shouldn't be done with a company that's trying to offer "voluntary" services at enormous fees.

Your negative review appears to stem from a misunderstanding of the terms used in our letter, and of the procedures surrounding unclaimed property. You asked specifically why you should have to contact the stock transfer agent in order to keep your account active. This is because state laws will generally define inactivity as a lack of shareholder-initiated contact. The key here is that the type of contact required to prevent shares from being determined to be inactive and therefore at risk of being required to be turned over to the state must be independently initiated by the owner vs. systematic investments such as a dividend reinvestment plan or direct deposit of dividends which is explained in the frequently asked questions within the corresponded received (FAQ #3). Moreover, in the event that an account remains inactive for the statutorily defined period of time, shares will be required to be turned over to the state as unclaimed property in a process known as escheat. While you can subsequently reclaim your property from the state, your shares will most often be sold, either upon receipt or within a specified period of time, and any increase in market value will be lost to you. Finally, as it seems you understand that our services are voluntary, you should also understand that there is no requirement to re-establish contact through our firm, but that you can contact the stock transfer agent directly.

This outfit, EQ Unify, needs to rehabilitate their approach. They are currently creating unneeded panic and charging illigitimate fees. This behavior is unethical. The letter should simply read something like: "This is to alert you that you account is at risk of being flagged as inactive" followed by instructions on how to update the account. If they want to charge a fee for their service, then ********** $20, not 10% of the value of the shares. Ridiculous!!

While we appreciate your feedback, we note that the situation for shareholders is more urgent than your suggestion implies. If a shareholder receives our letter, the account is already flagged as inactive, or is registered to a deceased owner, and is at risk of escheatment. Once shares of stock are escheated to the state as required under state unclaimed property laws, they will be sold and in most instances the shareholder will only be able to recover the value for which the shares were sold, not the market value as of the date they claim their property. This is a very real risk of loss for a shareholder, and action is generally required. In addition, our fully disclosed fees are in exchange for the convenience offered by our service. As stated in multiple places within our correspondence, if a shareholder is not interested in paying our fees to aid in selling, transferring or replacing lost or destroyed certificates, they can contact the transfer agent directly to resolve the matter by updating contact free of charge or completing any additional requests. We even go so far as to provide the contact information necessary for the shareholder to do so. Each recipient is therefore free to judge for themselves if they want to avail themselves of our services for the price stated.

Total scam dont fall for it. They claim I have stock shares unclaimed/inactive. Far from the truth! I get dividend checks automatically deposited to my bank account every quarter. Anything they find is public knowledge unfortunately. They want to charge 5-10% to even if it was legitimate you dont need them for anything. BEWARE

Please be aware that our service is not a scam. While you are correct that you can remedy the inactive status of your share account without our help, you are not correct in your assumption that you do not have shares at risk of becoming unclaimed due to inactivity. A part of our service is to educate shareholders regarding their at-risk accounts. This may include accounts that are enrolled for automatic deposit of dividends because many states do not consider a previously authorized recurring deposit to be customer activity. In the opinion of many states, an automatic deposit does not indicate your awareness of the account because it does not require any action on your part. That is why you still must initiate contact with the transfer agent to reactive your account. You may do so on your own, as disclosed in our correspondence.

EQ Unify is highly suspicious.They contacted my wife by mail regarding an inactive shareholder account. Their letter claimed that I could avoid any fee by calling ** Shareowner Services at no charge to remedy this matter; however, the phone number they provide is not the ** Shareowner Services phone number for the company whose stock my wife owns. Red Flag! RED FLAG!! R E D F L A G !!!Why would I want to give personal information, such as the full shareholder account number, to a person at a random company that is unaffiliated with the company whose stock my wife owns?This might not be a scam, but it sure smells like one. No way am I giving them my wife's full account number. In my personal opinion (I am not a lawyer or in law enforcement), you are a fool if you do.

EQ Unify is a legitimate service designed to notify individuals who own direct registration stock that their investment is at risk of escheating to the state absent their taking some action. We simultaneously offer, as a voluntary service and for convenience, our assistance with re-activating the owners account in exchange for a fully disclosed fee. As illustrated by your review, many people are not aware of the risk of escheatment, nor of the relationship between their shares of stock and the stock transfer agent that maintains the ownership records for the issuer. The phone number provided on our letter for the stock transfer agent is a valid number. It is not the issuer specific phone number that *** be provided on customer statements, but rather directs to customer service representatives at the transfer agent that are trained to address dormant accounts. In order to prevent fraud, and for the protection of the owners investment, the transfer agent will request validation of the owners identity which *** include account number and/or partial social security number. In most instances, they will not provide information to an individual other than the registered owner, even a spouse.If it is more reassuring to you, and your wife is aware of a direct issuer phone number at the transfer agent, she can call that number instead. The representatives will explain the dormant status of the shares, and assist her in taking the necessary and appropriate action to avoid escheatment.

Along with everyone else, I also received a very dense four-page letter from this company. The format of this letter is clearly designed to raise concern over an account that they have information about (either by public record or by affiliation with the institution in which the account is held). That they have (at least) the last four digits of my account number is most unsettling.DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY. Contact your financial institution directly. I say this because, if this is the method that they use "to alert you to the fact that your account requires customer-initiated contact to prevent it from being delivered to the state as unclaimed property," then I have no faith that they would be anything but ruthless if you allow them access to your account.To **********************'s responses to everyone, below, I will agree that, on the first page, they state that their services are voluntary and they list their (horrific) fee schedule. On page 2, bullet point two does state that you can call your account's "transfer agent" instead of them. But the number listed does not agree with the one on my quarterly statement and is the same area code as theirs.All this said, the format of the letter is CLEARLY designed to accrue business through fear. It might as well be a scam. I'm glad I found this BBB page.

While we appreciate that you took the time to provide feedback on our letter, we must take issue with the assumptions your review makes about the purpose or design of our outreach. Ours is a service of convenience for individuals whose direct registration stock accounts require customer-initiated contact in order to avoid becoming unclaimed property. Our outreach is performed only on accounts for which we have been authorized to do so by the stock issuer.Because we are reaching out regarding direct registration shares, contacting a financial institution, as erroneously advised in your review, will not prevent the account from becoming unclaimed property. Instead, the owner must contact the stock transfer agent; or they *** avail themselves of our voluntary service in exchange for a fully disclosed fee. The phone number provided on our letter for the stock transfer agent is a valid number. It is not the issuer specific phone number that *** be provided on customer statements, but rather directs to customer service representatives at the transfer agent that are trained to address dormant accounts.Finally, while we do not agree with your characterization that our outreach is designed to accrue business through fear; we do try to convey a sense of urgency regarding dormant accounts. This is for the benefit of shareholders. If shares become unclaimed property and are turned over to the state of the address of record on the account, as required by law, they are generally subject to sale by the state. While the owner *** re-claim property from the state at any time, in many states there is no requirement that the state make the shareholder whole by replacing shares previously sold, or returning the current market value of the shares on the date of the shareholders eventual claim. Rather, the owner would be entitled to only the value for which the shares were sold by the state, which in many cases *** occur immediately upon transfer.

As earlier reviews state, Ive had a DRIP shareholder account in good standing for decades. I received a letter from this voluntary sleazy company trying to scam me out of 10-15% of my account for no benefit to me. They can go to h***

If you received a letter from us it is because you own or are otherwise entitled to an account that is considered inactive. Even DRIP accounts may become inactive and at risk of escheatment for different reasons, depending on the laws of the state of the address of record on the account. For example, some state laws do not consider the automatic reinvestment of dividends to constitute owner-initiated activity in an account. If you are not interested in EQ Unifys service, we nevertheless urge you to reach out to the stock transfer agent responsible for your shares, contact information for whom can be found on our correspondence, to initiate customer contact and remove the dormancy indicator from your account. We are not attempting to fool customers, our fees are earned in exchange for services provided to those who wish to engage them. As is fully disclosed on our correspondence, if you are not interested in using our services because you do not want to pay EQ Unifys fee, you may contact the stock transfer agent directly to make the required customer-initiated contact or update their records. Our correspondence provides you with the contact information of the stock transfer agent in order for you to do so.