Share ownership

Wall St share ownership

When you purchase shares through Stake, you own the shares. Like many other investment platforms, Stake operates a custodian model, which means that your U.S. shares are held on your behalf by a custodian, however you are still the owner of those shares.

Stake’s U.S. broker-dealer, DriveWealth, is responsible for custody of your cash and shares and maintains the books and records that identify your shares as belonging to you. As part of their custody services, DriveWealth uses sub-custodians to hold your shares and cash. U.S. shares are held at the Depository Trust Company (DTC), and U.S. funds are held at the Bank of New York Mellon. 

Find more information about Stake’s partners here.

Protection 

Our U.S. partner DriveWealth, LLC is a broker-dealer registered with FINRA (U.S. regulator) and a member of SIPC, which protects Stake investors who own U.S. securities for up to US$500,000 (including US$250,000 for claims for cash). With an account at a brokerage firm that is a member of SIPC, your assets are protected whether you’re a U.S. citizen or not. You can read more about SIPC on their website.

Please note that SIPC does not protect against the decline in the value of your securities. SIPC gets involved when a brokerage firm fails and SIPC appoints a trustee to manage the liquidation of the firm for the protection of customers. 

In the unlikely event of Stake closing, you would still have access to all your cash and securities via DriveWealth.

More information is available in our Privacy Policy.

Stake Aus share ownership

When you buy ASX shares through Stake AUS, you are issued with a unique Holder Identification Number (HIN), which verifies that you directly own your shares. If a broker does not issue a HIN, this means they use a custodial model for your holdings.