I got my 2017 divy shares freed up! Finally. The following applies to divy shares in an E*Trade account.
Steps:
1. Contact Vic Devlaeminck - he is the Transfer Agent's legal counsel. Ask for a restriction removal opinion letter for NSAV, he charges $500 and will ask for a stock certificate - an account statement showing your shares will suffice.
email: vic@vicdevlaeminck.com
He's very kurt. Try not to rile him.
2. Upload his opinion letter to E*Trade's message center. This will get the ball rolling on their side, they'll know it's a rule 144 request and will update in the message center when they see it.
3. E*Trade will reach out to you, and advise that Pacific Stock Transfer charges another $295, and E*Trade charges $150 to complete the deal, so you'll need another $445 in your account.
4. Pacific Stock Transfer will send you a form to fill out - "statement of non-affiliation"
fill it out and upload it to E*Trade's message center.
5. The shares will appear in your account as tradeable NSAV shares.
I uploaded the restriction removal opinion on 4/7, heard back from E*Trade on 5/23, uploaded the non-affiliation form on 5/25, and the shares appeared in my account today on 6/24. As yet, E*Trade hasn't charged my account the $445 the quoted, and the non-affiliation form upload still shows "in-progress," so I expect they will at some point. However, I wanted to give everyone a play-by-play on getting divy shares out since I had a really tough time finding the information.
