The smart way to have handled the impending Bell breakup 30 years ago was to have dumped immediately. Those shares did nicely over that period, but lagged the S&P 500, although determining that is incredibly difficult. Some Bell parts did very well (like Comcast); some, like Lucent, became worthless. What a mess!
When the woman moved from an apartment to a nursing home, Bell wasn't informed and mail from them, including dividend checks, was returned marked "addressee unknown."
When she died, I found a stack of Bell South certificates in her safe deposit box. For some time I assumed they were worthless, having been exchanged for T stock. But they hadn't been exchanged and were quite valuable.
There was a cottage industry in helping people deal with the breakup. You can buy computer software to help. Many investors didn't want to deal with the tax issues so they just died with the stock... which is actually good tax planning.
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Because the Good Life is Just a Pump or Two Away
