Investment company suddenly asking for lots of documents

[TheGander]

About 8 years ago I inherited some shares. Not a huge sum, middle 4 figures. I was executor and at the time I provided all the info they needed to compete the transfer from my late father to me. Today I have received a very directive email requesting a whole volume of info ( copy and pasted):

• Copy of Application Form (duly completed and signed).
• Copy of ID-Document issued by a Government Body bearing 1: Picture, 2: Full Name, 3: Nationality, 4: Date & Place of Birth, 5: Signature Sample and 6: Expiry Date. The ID-Document must be within its validity date.
• Copy of Proof of Address (e.g. bank statement, utility bill) issued within the last 6 months.
• Copy of Source of Funds and Source of Wealth Corroboration (for origin of wealth validation).

Is this normal? Why are they suddenly requesting this? Everything was done above board, inheritance tax paid etc ( not that they probably care, they are based in Luxembourg). I’m puzzled . They are also indicating that once I have emailed all this and they have checked over, they want hard copies! Thanks for anyone who can shed light on this/ has experienced similar.

It's to do with money laundering I would suspect. Companies house have made all directors etc do this recently.

I’m sure it is, but surely they got all that info out of me when I inherited the shares? I have a suspicious nature, but could they have lost a load of data and they are trying to put things right?

They're tightening up kyc in Europe. I have to provide my banks there with updated details every year, pretty much. PITA.

What is kyc?

This stuff is really getting really out of hand
I don't know about Europe
But here, my parents had to go in and show some documents to the bank they've been with for years, I think to prove their real people or something

They wanted to throw out some paperwork recently, and I said no because people are asking for paperwork from years back
What if your source of funds is a property you sold years ago?

Know Your Customer

kyc, Know Your Customer. And it may be HMRC are looking for foreign income if you get dividends.

Financial service providers have to refresh their KYC checks periodically too. I’m not an expert, but there’s nothing on the list of documents that they’ve asked for that would trigger concerns for me.

DH has some USA shares with three different companies. One of them was an absolute nightmare to deal with.

Thank you @RoundandSad . If you were asking me and nor another poster, it was an inheritance. I guess I’ll have to do as asked.

No, I was just asking generally
You did say yours was inheritance
I just think it's a good idea to hold onto all the paperwork now because the financial organisations are asking for so much.

it doesn't prevent fraud or money laundering anyway

If you save 20 years to help your kids pay a deposit how are you going to show that it's mad? Sorry, I'm going off the point of what you asked. Just had a lot of stress recently with selling a relatives property and it all seems to have got really out of hand.

It is. We definitely need to hang onto these important documents even if we think they are done and dusted.

They can’t retain your ID because of GDPR so have to check periodically, for money laundering/regulatory requirements. It is a pain!

Thank you @Rainbowshine that makes some sense.

it doesn't prevent fraud or money laundering anyway

it does prevent it - it creates an audit trail so criminals can be tracked/stopped from moving money.

I don’t know why anyone moans about this stuff. Fraud costs the economy and end customers enormously and it’s just common sense to make things difficult for fraudsters.

yes it’s a bit of a pain, but in the same way as having to lock your front door or set your computer password.