Why paper shares should be part of the planning conversation | Equilibrium

Ben Rogers, Chartered Financial Planner at Equilibrium, says the end of paper share certificates is easy to dismiss as market plumbing. It sounds technical, administrative and remote from day-to-day advice. But it is prompting advisers to revisit a category of client assets that often sits outside the main planning conversation.

The government accepted the move away from paper share certificates in July 2025, with the first stage expected to replace current paper share registers with digitised versions before the end of 2027. Paper certificates are on the way out, even if the underlying investments are not. With the shift affecting around 4.7 million shareholdings in the UK, the change can’t be ignored.

Certificated holdings rarely present themselves as a client priority. They may have come from an old employee share scheme, a privatisation allocation, a family gift or an inherited holding that has never been folded into a modern platform-based portfolio. They still have value, but they often lack visibility. This is why it often falls on advisers to pose the question.

A reform story that lands in review meetings

The advice profession has spent years helping clients bring pensions, ISAs, GIAs and protection into a more coherent planning framework. However, paper holdings are often kept outside a client’s main financial arrangements and are easy to overlook, even though they still form part of their wealth.

In practice, these holdings often only come back into view during wider financial planning conversations, which is not unusual. This shift away from paper certificates gives clients a clear reason to deal with them, rather than leaving them untouched in the background.

This is not just about old paperwork

As well as an inconvenience for individual investors, paper shareholdings are also part of a wider market inefficiency.

For years, the system has had to support two parallel methods of recording ownership: a modern digital route for most investors, and an older paper-based one for those still holding certificated shares. That system creates duplication, added cost and more room for administrative error. It means more manual processes, more reconciliation and more friction across a system that is otherwise moving towards greater speed and efficiency.

The move away from paper is part of a broader effort to modernise how share ownership is recorded and administered. Advisers do not need to become specialists in market infrastructure, but it is useful context because it shows this is not a cosmetic change. A client with paper shares is not just holding an old-format asset, they are tied to the slower, less efficient side of the system, which is why this should be treated as a live advice issue now, rather than a task to leave until the deadline is closer.

The risk is friction, not sudden loss

One of the less helpful ways to present this topic is as though clients are at risk of suddenly losing their money. 

When clients want to sell, transfer or establish exactly what they own, paper-based holdings can slow everything down. The same applies when investors want to exercise shareholder rights or when family members are already dealing with bereavement, probate or a wider tidy-up of assets. The longer a holding has sat untouched, the more likely it is that practical questions start to emerge around names, addresses, supporting paperwork and whether the asset still fits the client’s current objectives.

That is why the removal of paper certificates matters is exposing where legacy holdings have already drifted away from the rest of the advice relationship.

Where advisers can add real value

A helpful approach to the reform is to use the change to bring neglected assets back into scope. It allows advisers to ask simple questions to prompt clients. Are there any shares still held in certificate form? Were any acquired through an old employer scheme? Are there inherited holdings that have never been reviewed? Does the client have assets outside their core platform arrangements that are no longer being monitored properly?

Those questions can uncover concentration risk, forgotten income streams, assets that no longer suit the client’s objectives, or holdings that should form part of a wider conversation about gifting, succession or liquidity.

In that sense, this is a useful example of how advice often creates value. Not through dramatic portfolio changes, but by spotting what has been missed and giving it context before it becomes a problem.

Why this belongs on the agenda now

Handled early, these conversations are unlikely to be dramatic. They are usually a matter of identifying what exists, checking how it is held, understanding whether it still serves a purpose and making sure clients are not left dealing with avoidable friction later.

Left too late, the same issue becomes harder to resolve when a client wants access to funds quickly, when family members are already under pressure, or when a piece of legacy paperwork suddenly needs attention in the middle of a wider financial event.

There is still time before the first stage of the paper certificate transition is due to be completed. It gives advisers an opportunity to raise this now and avoid more friction later. In many cases, they are a current test of whether older assets have really been integrated into modern advice.