Hello, this is my first post so I apologise in advance for any mistakes. Also, I understand this comes under 'first-world problems', but I would genuinely value anyone's view on this problem.
Long story short... My uncle put shares of one of his companies into my name when I was approx 15. My sister has shares too. We were never given a shares certificate or received any dividends or anything like that. It was kind of him to do that but I assume it was mostly done for tax reasons. I was never sure of the legalities of it all, and so was unsure they were really mine or if they could be taken out of my name at any time. Since the shares were put in my name my uncle has had other children and I thought perhaps he would have transferred them into their names or something like that. However, over the years my uncle or grandparents have mentioned the shares as though they were still coming to myself and my sister. There has never been a time or amount mentioned.
A few months ago the company I have shares in was sold. My uncle asked me to email him my signature so he could copy it on some documents to do with the sale. He said other family members had signed the same documents. I emailed him my signature and then phoned my sister to ask what it was she had signed. She did not know what it was! She had signed without reading it. She said our uncle had told her 'the shares were gone'. Obviously I thought that was a bit strange.
We have been waiting for the sale of company to go through to see what, if anything will come of it. I haven't asked my uncle about it because he isn't the kind of person you can ask.
Today my mum tells me my uncle wants to set up a foundation with the money and for myself, one of his children and his P.A's daughter to run it. This is a bit weird and random to say the least, I have no experience of such things. Apparently the deal would include that the foundation would pay for the education of any children the three of us may have. The foundation will also pay off the remainder of our mortgages but on our deaths our properties are to be sold with half going back into the foundation. This doesn't seem like much of a 'deal' to me as I will be 39 in a few months and have no children and my flat is 2/3 paid for already.
My question really is am I missing something here? It feels like I'm being told I can't have the money (don't know the amount) but I can help decide which charities get it instead. It doesn't feel like much of a deal to me. I do not have much money myself at all, in fact, I am struggling quite a lot. Am I being very spoilt, ungrateful?
I'm sorry this is so long, I couldn't think how to make it shorter. Thank you for taking the time to read through it.