Owning individual shares like this is fine, but many people have just sat on these shares for years without monitoring their progress - either through lack of time or sheer inertia. The fact that thousands of small investors have failed to even cash in their dividend cheques indicates widespread ignorance as well. Realise your assets So cashing in these shares and reinvesting in pooled investments like unit or investment trusts may be worth considering. This will not only reduce your exposure to the volatility of individual stocks, but also spare you the headache of running your own portfolio. These typically cost 15- 30 per share sale, providing you reinvest the money in their funds.
Some groups also offer a discount on their normal unit trust initial charges.
However, you will need to establish which shares they are willing to accept. Generally speaking the shares of FTSE 100 companies and those from privatisation issues are welcome but anything difficult to trade might be rejected. But if you have large holdings and have made gains in excess of your allowance, you may need to take tax advice as to how to mitigate your liability. In many cases, demutualisation shares are treated by the taxman as gifts, so the whole share value is treated as a capital gain on disposal and not just the gain in the share price from the time of purchase - as with privatisation issues and other shares. A good way to shelter the proceeds from tax is to reinvest up to 7,000 using this year's ISA allowance before 5 April.