Share deals are now being settled in Crest.

Only a handful of companies has made the transition so far.

The pace accelerates from October, when 150 securities will move each week from Talisman to Crest.

In seven months, the process will be complete.It is in everyone's interest to keep the transition as brief as possible and then to reap the dividends from the Crest investment.

Soon after April 1997, the standard settlement period will fall to T+3, three working days after dealing.No one has to hold their share entitlements electronically in Crest.

Those who deal infrequently can keep certificates but any security which they sell will have to be 'dematerialised' into Crest before the broker can deal with it.

This removes any chance of hitting the T+3 deadline, so the bargain will have to be struck for 'non-standard' settlement (eg T+10).

It will also cost brokers all the normal expenses of a Crest transaction plus the extra costs of handling paper and 'dematerialising' it.While brokers struggle for position in this new world, little extra cost may surface as a result of staying certificated.

Gradually extra charges from brokers and market-makers will emerge, the latter disguised in the security price.

Anyone who doubts that this will happen should examine the gilts market, where individuals who need certificates have long paid a higher price than institutions that accept the Central Gilts Office's electronic registration.A broker's extra costs for handling a certificated rather than electronic transaction may be some £5 per transaction.

The costs of keeping a 15-share portfolio in Crest for a year may be around £25.

Eventually, a portfolio with more than about three sales and three purchases each year would probably be worth moving into Crest.Where does this leave a solicitors' firm that administers shareholdings for trusts or the elderly? These firms have a share custody business.

Even if it has no overt tariff, the business will earn revenue from chargeable letters accompanying certificate movements or entitlement notifications.

Revenue apar t, safe custody has often tied client and solicitor in a bond of trust.

Unless solicitors can adapt to share custody's electronic version, both revenue and trust may erode and custody depart to a Crest-linked broker.To compete, solicitors must find a practical, economic way to offer Crest accounts.

There is no sense in becoming a full Crest member: solicitors do not need 90% of Crest's complex functions.

What they need is a simple electronic replacement for the vault in which they kept certificates and an electronic means of authorising and sending stock transfers.Sponsored Crest membership, where the solicitor employs an agent to operate the physical gateway to Crest's systems, can provide this solution if correctly designed.

Several brokers are offering such services to solicitors but there are many design flaws at this stage from the solicitor's angle.

The services are built on the broker's rather than the solicitor's nominee company.

They typically require tied use of the broker for any dealing and lack a system for remote communication of up-to-date information.LawShare and Stocktrade are two exceptions.

LawShare in particular is offering LawSafe, a PC-based communications system which provides the solicitor with up-to-date information on all Crest holdings and recent movements, easily sorted by client or security.

Any broker can be used for any transaction.

Movements instructions can be dual-authorised in the solicitor's office and are dispatched in encrypted from.

Invoices are provided at client level, so that they can be charged as disbursements if required.In the long run, Crest is likely to prove as voluntary as the government's new identity card! Already plans are being laid for gilts to be included, perhaps from as early as 1998.

To preserve their role in the safe-keeping of shares, solicitors need to plan now to embrace it.