Ownership

Scattered Records, Costly Answers

“Who owns that entity?” The question sounds simple. Try answering it across a corporate family with a dozen subsidiaries, two minority investments, and several external investors.

One subsidiary’s operating agreement shows different numbers than the CFO’s spreadsheet. An investor’s stake changed six months ago; the only record is an email thread. Lextree creates a structured equity record and documents every transaction that changes it. Not a cap table or valuation tool. A compliance record that answers “who owns what” and “how did it get that way.” Firms still tracking share positions in a workbook can start from our stock ledger template and migrate entries into structured records as ownership changes.

Every Equity Position

Each ownership record captures the owner, the entity, the ownership percentage, and the voting percentage — because economic ownership and voting control often diverge. Each equity class (preferred shares, common units, partnership interests, membership interests) appears separately.

Ownership percentages determine who qualifies as a beneficial owner, who can approve transactions, and who bears personal liability. When those percentages live in a spreadsheet last updated “sometime last year,” every compliance decision rests on uncertain ground. Timeline tracking preserves each ownership state. Acquire a position and the record captures it. Sell or transfer and the state changes, preserving the full history. Pull up ownership on any date and trace how it evolved.

Transactions as Evidence

Equity transactions — purchases, sales, grants, exercises, conversions, gifts, inheritances — reshape your ownership structure. Each entry captures who sold, who bought, which entity’s equity changed hands, the transaction date, the type of transfer, and the financial terms.

These entries form a permanent evidence chain showing how ownership evolved. Auditors examine this record during due diligence. Lenders review it before extending credit. Regulators inspect it when verifying beneficial ownership. Spreadsheets and email threads don’t survive these inquiries; a structured transaction log does. Each transaction links to its authorizing resolution in Board Governance — examiners need the decision and the execution side by side.

Across Boundaries

Ownership doesn’t stop at your affiliated entities. External investors hold stakes in your companies. Your organization holds minority interests in joint ventures or portfolio companies.

Lextree tracks equity ownership across both managed entities and external organizations. An outside investor’s preferred shares in your subsidiary appear alongside your holding company’s common stock. A minority interest in a joint venture gets the same structured record as a wholly owned subsidiary. Due diligence demands a complete picture: who owns each entity, what external parties hold equity, what minority interests you maintain.

Ownership in Context

Who owns an entity determines who governs it, who files for it, who insures it, and who bears liability when obligations go unmet. A separate spreadsheet means connecting those dots manually, and hoping the data is current.

The entities in Ownership are the same Legal Entities tracked across every other module. When ownership changes, that context appears alongside governance, tax filings, insurance, and contracts. When auditors ask who owned what and when — and they will — the answer is already documented, timestamped, and ready.