Transfer Agency Fee (2024)

FAQs

What are transfer agency fees? ›

Represents a shareholder servicing agent that maintains shareholder records, prepares shareholder reports and maintains the customer service department. Often seen when no 12b-1 fee is in place. This figure is pulled from the fund's annual report and depicted in U.S. Dollars.

Some examples of transfer agents are financial companies, trust companies, banks, or individuals.

Transfer agents work for the security issuer to record changes of ownership, maintain the issuer's security holder records, cancel and issue certificates, and distribute dividends. Transfer agents are usually banks or trust companies, but sometimes a company acts as its own transfer agent.

Computershare acts as transfer agent/registrar to a range of US companies. For these companies, registered shareholders can manage their own holdings directly using our online platform, Investor Center.

For example, if you had a credit card with an APR of 15% and had a balance of $4,500, a transfer fee of 3% would cost you $135.

Publicly traded companies listed on a stock exchange need transfer agents to maintain records of shareholder accounts, calculate and distribute dividends, and keep investors up to date with what's going on. Mutual funds and issuers of debt securities also rely on transfer agents for similar reasons.

For publicly traded companies that are listed on an exchange, do proxy voting, and pay dividends, there are a lot of complexities and so they are required to have a registered transfer agent.

The top 5 transfer agents for the total population market share include Computershare/BNY Mellon, Equiniti Trust Co/American Stock Transfer & Trust, Continental Stock Transfer & Trust, Broadridge, and Vstock Transfer.

There is a high risk of operational error in this labor-intensive and paper-based environment. The internalization of functions within fund groups eliminates independent oversight. TAs are often not transparent to their stakeholders, especially to fiduciaries whom they do not view as their clients.

What is the difference between a transfer agent and a paying agent? ›

The paying agent is responsible for payment initiation. On the other hand, a transfer agent is liable for maintaining the investor's financial record and balance.

The top 5 transfer agents for the total population market share include: Computershare, Equiniti Trust Co/American Stock Transfer & Trust, Continental Stock Transfer & Trust, BNY Mellon, and Broadridge. Computershare maintains its lead with 25.7% market share in 2022 compared to 27.2% in 2021.

For processing purchase and sale instructions from a Participant, Computershare will charge transaction and processing fees in accordance with the fee schedule set forth in the CIP Supplement or in subsequent notices of fee changes that Computershare provides to Participants.

Termination and Withdrawal A Participant may withdraw from CIP online at www.computershare.com/investor, via telephone or by mailing a request to Computershare. A Participant may also withdraw from CIP by selling or transferring all shares in the Participant's CIP account.

Transfer agents are responsible for issuing and cancelling stock certificates as shares are bought and sold, for replacing lost documents and for distributing cash and stock dividend payments to shareholders.

Private transfer fees, also known as reconveyance fees, recovery fees, capital recovery fees, or resale fees, is a charge that is required to be paid to a developer, HOA, or individual at closing each time a property is sold.