My wife and I both hold shares in separate names and up to now could bed and breakfast them at the married threshold of £2,000. Given the Budget changes, do we need to transfer all our shares into joint names to maximise allowances and what is involved in so doing? Do we need to employ a stockbroker to effect the change?

Mr P.McH., Dublin

The Budget changes themselves don't affect the ability of you and your wife to engage in bed and breakfast deals or to maximise the capital gains allowance, which will remain at £2,000 between you. However, it would no longer be transferable between you, so you would need to ensure that each of you made £1,000 on your particular deals.

Putting the shares into both your names is one way of offsetting this need for close monitoring. It is not difficult and, according to one stockbroker, you would be best advised to do it yourself rather than employing a broker, who, given the amount of paperwork, would be obliged to charge you the basic commission as though the transfer were a share deal. All you need to do is contact the Revenue Commissioners stamping branch and present a stock transfer form. It will cost you £10 a transaction - that is each stock for which you require a transfer. The Revenue can even transfer British stocks from one name to that of a couple, although it can be done more cheaply, albeit taking longer, through Belfast.

I hold both a pension and a life policy with Canada Life, into which I pay a monthly premium. Despite Canada Life's decision to demutualise globally, I am told I will not be entitled to any free shares. How is this so and is there anything I can do about it?

Mr J.C., Dublin

Unfortunately, you fall outside the boundaries of the windfall arising from Canada Life's decision to go public. At the heart of the matter is the nature of your policies. It appears both your pension and life policies are unit-linked schemes, under which your premiums go towards the purchase of units and your return is dependent on the performance of those units.

To benefit from the group's decision to float, you would need to be paying into with-profits policies. Under these, you get a share of the profits accruing to the company from its investments and are considered a shareholder in the company. As such, you are a member of the company rather than a client - as with unit-linked customers - and entitled to participate in and benefit from any move to public status. It mirrors the situation with the soon-to-demutualise First National Building Society, where deposit account holders are considered customers without rights to participate in its conversion to a public company while investment account holders are considered members of the society and, therefore, able to rule on its conversion and benefit from any such move.

To be fair, the rules governing entitlement to voting rights and free shares are set down in law and not arbitrarily decided upon by the institutions considering a flotation.

Anyone unsure of how they stand in relation to receiving shares in Canada Life's move to public status should contact the help-line set up by the group. The number is 1850-515051.

I hold a deposit account with First National Building Society and although I understood I would have no voting rights, I received a package last week from the society including proxy voting papers. What is my position?

Mr D.D., Dublin

If all you hold with First National is a deposit account, you are not entitled to vote and should not have received voting papers. The society assures me it has double-checked all those entitled to vote and is confident that no-one who is not entitled to vote will have received such documentation.

The position is clear and, assuming the society is correct about who has received papers, all I can suggest is that you check once again the precise status of your account. There are a whole host of investment accounts, whose holders are eligible for voting rights and free shares, which do not bear the name investment and may not be evident as such on first sight. The society has a full list of all the accounts, the holders of which are entitled to participate in the conversion process.

Send your queries to Q&A, Business This Week, 10-15 D'Olier St, Dublin 2, or email to dcoyle@irish-times.ie.