Direct Account

1) Beneficial owner and shares purchased held under your name.
2) Attending AGM is no issue. On the AGM day itself you can decide whether you want to attend or not.
3) Can apply IPO.
4) Processing fees involved when you subscribe corporate action like Rights Issue/DRP etc.
5) Receive annual report from companies.
6) Dividend payment as accordance to the payment date announced.
7) Opening account request might take a few days.

Nominees Account (Rakuten Trade as example)

1) Beneficial owner but shares are technically not held under your name.
2) Attending the AGM as proxy. Need to send in your request 10 working days before AGM date.
3) Cannot apply IPO.
4) No processing fees involved. Can be done via your trading platform.
5) No annual reports.
6) Dividend payment date will be slightly late.
7) 2 hours to activate your account.

You decide.