Berkshire Hathaway UK shareholders

[Fundmanagerthrwawy]

Hi all,

Are there any shareholders from the UK that are planning on attending the AGM in April? If so have you received your credentials yet and what Brokerage are you using?

Cheers

[Lemsip]

I am a UK shareholder though not attending the AGM this year. I did go in 2019.

The process of getting credentials is pretty straightforward and I didn't bother doing it in advance. If you arrange your schedule accordingly, you can turn up at the venue the day before and go to the "Will Call" area with a copy of a brokerage statement showing a Berkshire holding. Standing in line takes longer than the credentials process which is less than a minute. Then you use the credentials to attend the following day. I used II and Eqi at the time but they weren't really clued in on the Berkshire credentials process so I just took a printed copy of the statements along on the day. Some people were also showing statements on their smartphone to get credentials. 

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by Lemsip

[Fundmanagerthrwawy]

Hi, 

Thanks for the comment.

I'm currently with Freetrade for my personal shares. I contacted them about 6 months ago, make sure I was going to receive the credentials and the rest of the pack. I was basically told they didn't provide such a service and to get lost. Do you have any recommendations for brokerages that offer the simple service of sending the investors yearly package? I'm yet to find one Ha! 

3 hours ago, Lemsip said:

I am a UK shareholder though not attending the AGM this year. I did go in 2019.

The process of getting credentials is pretty straightforward and I didn't bother doing it in advance. If you arrange your schedule accordingly, you can turn up at the venue the day before and go to the "Will Call" area with a copy of a brokerage statement showing a Berkshire holding. Standing in line takes longer than the credentials process which is less than a minute. Then you use the credentials to attend the following day. I used II and Eqi at the time but they weren't really clued in on the Berkshire credentials process so I just took a printed copy of the statements along on the day. Some people were also showing statements on their smartphone to get credentials

 

[Lemsip]

8 hours ago, Fundmanagerthrwawy said:

Hi, 

Thanks for the comment.

I'm currently with Freetrade for my personal shares. I contacted them about 6 months ago, make sure I was going to receive the credentials and the rest of the pack. I was basically told they didn't provide such a service and to get lost. Do you have any recommendations for brokerages that offer the simple service of sending the investors yearly package? I'm yet to find one Ha! 

I have held Berkshire for more than 20 years and never found a UK broker that was switched on to the AGM related admin process for any US listed firm. Interactive Investor do a reasonable job of adminstering UK listed companies though but don't have a clue regarding US co's.

I used to have a few BRK shares in a US account ( with Citibank) in NY and they faithfully used to send all AGM material to me in the UK.  I switched the holdings on to something else so no longer get the BRK material from them.  In any case it is simple enough to just show up with a printed copy of your brokerage statement and do this the day before the meeting and that's what a lot of the overseas attendees ( of which there are usually a lot) tend to do.

 

[thowed]

UK brokers.....

Haven't experience with BRK, but share your frustration - they are pretty hopeless, including with tax packs (most I've found don't know about Excess Reporting Income on Offshore Funds).  And they tend to charge for ridiculous things like attending AGMs in the UK - I've always just turned up & been lucky, though this means you can't vote by show of hands, so need to do a proxy beforehand.

[Dynamic]

Thanks, I'm not planning to attend this year, but might do so next year especially now I'm retired/a personal investor with no other job. I hold a lot of my Berkshire in an ISA (as does my spouse) with iDealing.com which has never sent me any voting forms. I also hold some Berkshire in Interactive Brokers (UK) which lets me vote my shares online, but I've not seen anything from them about meeting credentials. Good to know that a brokerage statement from either is probably sufficient for the Will Call area.

[Fundmanagerthrwawy]

On 4/8/2022 at 6:23 PM, Dynamic said:

Thanks, I'm not planning to attend this year, but might do so next year especially now I'm retired/a personal investor with no other job. I hold a lot of my Berkshire in an ISA (as does my spouse) with iDealing.com which has never sent me any voting forms. I also hold some Berkshire in Interactive Brokers (UK) which lets me vote my shares online, but I've not seen anything from them about meeting credentials. Good to know that a brokerage statement from either is probably sufficient for the Will Call area.

I also hold a lot of Berkshire and was hoping to attend this year but like I have mentioned its seems incredibly difficult to get a hold of. So I think I also might be going next year. I'd love to get in touch closer to the time and see what plans you have if you decide on going.