Bearer Form

  

That's bear-er. No nudity involved.

Securities can be issued in two ways: registered, or bearer. Most are registered, meaning that the issuer (the business that sold the security) sends out the payments to the owner of their own accord. The business even keeps track of the security should the original owner sell it.

With a security in tbe bearer form though, there is no record of it, and whoever has the physical certificate in hand is assumed to be the owner. The obvious risk comes in the potentiality of you losing the certificate (yikes), but the upside is that it makes it easier to avoid transfer taxes.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is a Bearer Bond, or Beare...20 Views

00:00

Finance a la shmoop... what is a bearer bond or bearer stock alright you know

00:07

that saying possession is nine-tenths of the law

00:10

right well that's how bearer bonds and stocks work if you have the paper [Man presenting a bond]

00:14

representing the bond or stock aka the bond or stock certificate itself in your

00:19

hot little hands or wallet well then you own the bond or stock whether you stole

00:24

it or bought it or you know 3D printed it...In bearer bonds and

00:29

stocks there's no record or tracing of who bought or owned the bond or stock

00:35

sort of the opposite of how Bitcoin works and because of this non tracing [Money in a laundry machine]

00:39

and the ease with which money could be laundered for our kindly loving

00:43

terrorist friends bearer bonds and stocks are not very common today because

00:48

investors simply don't like the idea that their precious assets can be stolen [Thief running from police with money]

00:52

and then used to you know match plaid with stripes to counter this anonymity

00:57

most securities are in fact registered meaning that ownership is filed

01:02

officially with a brokerage or an issuer ie the company itself so that money can [A tracker appears]

01:06

be tracked and well taxed all over the world and note that one way bearer bonds

01:12

or stocks are dealt with in the fashion realm is to you know simply get rid of

01:16

the E don't look....[Man walking on a catwalk with no clothes]

Up Next

Finance: What is the Maturity of a Bond?
95 Views

What is the maturity of a bond? Maturity refers to the time when an investment ends. When maturity happens, the investor is either on the hook for...

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)