Governments can take your stocks without your permission. It happens all the time

States have been rewriting unclaimed-property laws, shifting the definition of abandoned securities from a 'lost' standard to an 'inactivity' standard, which lowers the bar for government action. If investments are deemed dormant, states can transfer and sell the stock as unclaimed property. This was illustrated by California selling Jan Peters' Amazon shares, preventing him from receiving the subsequent appreciation of his investment.