Welcome to LawShelf’s video-course on stocks and stock transfers. In this course, we’ll explain what stocks are, how they are generated and registered, the rights and responsibilities that accompany stock ownership and how stocks are transferred. This is an intermediate-level course and we recommend first taking the LawShelf course on business organizations.

The course opens with a discussion of stock certificates and how they are issued and registered. We’ll also discuss classes of stock and the basic landscape of how stocks and securities are regulated under federal and state law.

In module 2, we’ll look at stockholder rights. These include the rights to vote, sell shares and receive dividends and/or the company’s assets upon dissolution. We’ll also look at the stockholder’s rights to inspect the company books and bring shareholder derivative lawsuits when necessary.

Module 3 covers stock issuances and purchases. We’ll cover the roles of stock brokers and how stocks must be registered. We’ll also look at various types of stock purchase plans.

Module 4 turns to stock transfers. We’ll examine the right to transfer shares and common transfer restrictions in operating agreements and bylaws. We’ll also look at the formalities of transferring shares, including the transfer on death rules. Finally, we’ll look at gift transfers of stock and when those can qualify as charitable contributions.

Our final module will look at the tax implications of selling stock. We’ll focus on explaining long- and short-term capital gains and losses and also look at qualified and non-qualified dividends.

When you complete this course, you should be familiar with what stocks are, how they are issued and how they are transferred and sold. We also encourage you to take advantage of our other courses on business organizations and securities, for which this course may be a good building block.

Best of luck and we welcome your feedback.