According to an estimate, roughly 82,000 Crores of investor wealth is lying unclaimed with banks, Insurance Companies, Mutual Funds, Shares in IEPF, etc.
What should you do to enable smooth transfer of your investments to your heirs?
Here is a list of 5 To Do Items:
- Keep the family fully informed about your investments
Many investments remain unclaimed simply because the family is not aware of their existence
- Always have joint holders & nominees
It is a good idea to have a joint holder (if possible – Two joint holders) and a nominee. There have been cases where husband & wife were joint holders but none of the adult children were the nominee. The children had to spend a lot of time & money to get Succession Certificate issued from court to claim the investments.
- Keep login credentials accessible to your family
These days all investments are linked to email & mobile no. The family should know the login credentials of the email id & mobile no. linked to the investments and to the login of your demat account, insurance policies, mutual funds etc. You can even create a separate email id which will be linked to all investments made in any family member’s name.
- Prepare your Will
As far as possible, keep your legatees in confidence while preparing your Will to minimize the chances of disgruntlement or disputes later on
- Do not open too many bank / mutual fund folios / Demat Accounts
Just because you are getting slightly higher interest from another bank, do not open a new bank account. Maintaining multiple bank accounts / MF Folios / Demat Accounts not only makes your accounting cumbersome but is a huge challenge for your heirs while claiming the amounts. This practice of maintaining too many bank accounts, etc. is another reason for unclaimed amounts currently lying with banks & mutual funds.
Remember, it is our own responsibility that the wealth created by us gets easily passed on to our loved ones!

An Engineer & MBA with exceptional analytical skills, a deep understanding of the Financial markets & Investment products with 31 years of experience

An Engineer & MBA with exceptional analytical skills, a deep understanding of the Financial markets & Investment products with 31 years of experience.