# How can I find out if these shares are worth anything? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 18, 2011, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-if-these-shares-are-worth-anything/585985 "2011-06-18T23:45:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2011, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-if-these-shares-are-worth-anything/585985/1 "2011-06-18T23:45:29Z")
Way back in 1981 my parents were talked into buying some shares for my brother and me in a particular company - Canadian Pioneer Management ltd. I still have the stock certificate but I suspect that the company has been sold/purchased/gone under/been sued, etc. Is there an easy way to find out? I don’t imagine that they’re worth much of anything, but I’ve been keeping the stock certificate around and it sort of bugs me to have it if it’s worthless. Anyway to check? ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-if-these-shares-are-worth-anything/585985/2 "2011-06-19T00:08:02Z")
you can do a search on it. What I found searching is that it is a “private company” if it is indeed the same company. [http://www.manta.com/ic/mt6s3c1/ca/canadian-pioneer-estates-ltd](http://www.manta.com/ic/mt6s3c1/ca/canadian-pioneer-estates-ltd) What information is on your stock certificate? ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-if-these-shares-are-worth-anything/585985/3 "2011-06-19T00:12:30Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > you can do a search on it. What I found searching is that it is a “private company” if it is indeed the same company. [http://www.manta.com/ic/mt6s3c1/ca/canadian-pioneer-estates-ltd](http://www.manta.com/ic/mt6s3c1/ca/canadian-pioneer-estates-ltd) > > What information is on your stock certificate? Humm - that seems to be a different company, actually. It’s a pretty standard stock certificate - my name and (then) address, # of shares (200), original signatures and a corporate seal. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-if-these-shares-are-worth-anything/585985/4 "2011-06-19T03:33:56Z")
> [@alice\_in\_wonderland](#): > > Humm - that seems to be a different company, actually. > > It’s a pretty standard stock certificate - my name and (then) address, # of shares (200), original signatures and a corporate seal. do you know what stock exchange it was listed on? There should be records at that exchange. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-if-these-shares-are-worth-anything/585985/5 "2011-06-19T06:14:01Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > do you know what stock exchange it was listed on? There should be records at that exchange. No idea, whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-if-these-shares-are-worth-anything/585985/6 "2011-06-19T06:39:05Z")
[Canadian Pioneer Management ltd. appears to be/have been](http://scc.lexum.org/en/1979/1980scr1-433/1980scr1-433.html) a holding company for Pioneer Life and Pioneer Trust. It looks as though Sovereign bought the Life Insurance end of Pioneer and a company called North American Life then bought Sovereign, and Manulife then bought them. No clue re value re how shares were valued when absorbed, but it appears that the entity Canadian Pioneer Life entity has been absorbed into ever larger companies. Don’t know if the trust end was bundled with that See # 11 [Manulife Canadian Acquisitions](http://www.manulife.ca/canada/ilc2.nsf/public/cdn_acquisitions) > [@](#): > > Sovereign Life/Pioneer Life > 1990 December 31 Sovereign merged with Pioneer Life > 1991 January 31 North American Life purchased a block of business from Sovereign consisting of the Pioneer issued individual policies: Hospital Cash, Prime Life and Classic Term. Manulife stock performance. [http://www.manulife.com/public/investor/index/0,,lang=en&navId=640001,00.html](http://www.manulife.com/public/investor/index/0,,lang=en&navId=640001,00.html) ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-if-these-shares-are-worth-anything/585985/7 "2011-06-19T06:52:27Z")
RE Pioneer Trust looks like pretty bad news. Not sure if they survived or not. [http://www.legassembly.sk.ca/hansard/20L4S/85-05-10.pdf](http://www.legassembly.sk.ca/hansard/20L4S/85-05-10.pdf) > [@](#): > > Collapse of Pioneer Trust > MR. KOSKIE: – Thank you again, Mr. Speaker. I would like to address a question to the Minister of > Finance. And, Mr. Minister, the question deals with one of the biggest business collapses in the history > of Saskatchewan — the collapse of Pioneer Trust, and allegations of a former director of Pioneer Trust > indicates questionable investments involving conflicts of interest in respect to the trust company > [@](#): > > I think we, and other people in Saskatchewan, were unaware of any significant difficulties with respect > to Pioneer Trust until it was announced that the Minister of Finance proposed to guarantee an issue of > shares of Pioneer Trust. This became public last fall, late last fall. We took the position then, and we > take the position now, that this was entirely inappropriate for the government to guarantee an issue of > preferred shares of a company, essentially to bolster up the share structure of a company. > Shareholders of a company invest; they take a risk investment. The shares may go up in value; the > shares may go down in value. In fact the shares of Canadian Pioneer Management, the holding > company, did go up in value. They have likely now gone down in value, but those are risks which > shareholders take. They get the fruits of their risk, and they should assume the burden of their risk. > And so we didn’t think the Government of Saskatchewan should guarantee the share issue of Pioneer > Trust, or more properly Canadian Pioneer Management, the holding company and parent company of > Pioneer Trust. We saw no merit in that. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-out-if-these-shares-are-worth-anything/585985/8 "2011-06-20T14:26:05Z")
Have you thought about taking it to a brokerage and trying to start an account with the stock certificates? I would guess that if you expressed interest in potentially doing business with them and either holding stock through them or using them as a broker to sell the shares, they would be willing to tell you a little about them?