And you thought only ghosts could make horror stories… Continued

by
Pradip Chakrabarty
Founder – Advisorkhoj.com

In my previous article I shared how families get in trouble if they are not aware about the investments made by their deceased parents or spouse. In this edition, I will throw some light on how to recover the investments made by the deceased and how to claim them after his/her death. Assuming the deceased had some investments in Mutual funds, few Insurance policies, some fixed deposits in a bank, a locker in a bank, aShare Trading Account or Shares in paper form (non-demat), apart from a couple of regular bank accounts. And, you do not have any clues except some papers like, bank statements, demat account holding or policy bonds or some shares in physical mode found after the death.

The first thing you should do is to check his entire bank accounts / or request the banker for his historical bank statements. Here, you will get the details of all cheques issued and thus, you will come to know about the investments, because cash transactions are not allowed for investments in mutual funds and shares, and only some companies accept cash for buying Insurance policies. Also, the PAN number is mandatory for buying shares. Once you know whom the cheques have been issued to, you can directly contact the companies one-by-one or else do the following:-

Mutual Funds – You might get some statements which will have folio nos. But, how to know his entire holding across all the Mutual Funds (currently 40+ mutual fund companies)? Please approach the following 4 Mutual Fund registrars (these 4 entities services all the MFs in India) with the deceased PAN No., name and address-

1.     www.camsonline.com
2.     www.karvymfs.com
3.     www.franklintempletonindia.com
4.     www.sundarammutual.com

These registrars can check all the investments online based on PAN No. of the deceased and also on the basis of name and address. If you approach all the four entities you will come to know the entire holdings. Now, how to claim the investments? If the deceased has made someone nominee then the nominee has to claim by writing a letter and submitting his PAN No., identity proof, address proof, bank details along with a cancelled cheque and the attested/notarized copy of deceased’s death certificate. If there is a joint holding, then the process is simple and the joint holder can retain the investment by requesting deletion of deceased name by providing attested death certificate or else can redeem the entire holding by giving the above set of documents.

You can also check online if he had a KYC (now mandatory for investment in Mutual Funds)http://www.cvlkra.com/kycpaninquiry.aspx

Insurance Policies – Apart from the bank statement the other way is to check all his papers and files and find out the renewal deposit receipts or policy bonds. There is a possibility that he had taken policies by paying the premium in cash and therefore not reflecting in the bank account. The nominee can approach the Insurer directly and fill up the “Claim form” along with his ID, address proof, bank details and a copy of the death certificate. The complete details of all Insurers are available at www.irda.gov.in. In case of any problem in  claim settlement the nominee should contact the regional Insurance Ombudsman Officehttp://www.irdaindia.org/ombudsmenlist_nov07.htm

Share Trading Account – Share Trading cannot be done with having a Demat account and a PAN Number.  If the deceased had some investments in shares then he most possibly will have a Demat account with the Broker else he will have physical shares. Please search through papers and look for a Demat account statement or check the bank accounts whether any cheque has been issued in favour of any broker? In case you have some doubt and/or do not get any clue about the shares you may contact the following Depository Services with PAN No. of the deceased –

-         www.cdslindia.com

-         www.nsdl.co.in

They can search and confirm whether the deceased has a Demat Account or not? And if yes, with which Broker? Nominations and joint holding is possible – therefore, check the nominee name and/or joint name and accordingly approach the broker for doing the needful.

Bank Locker – While checking his bank accounts try to find out whether some amount for Locker Rent has been debited or not? Normally its an annual rent so to figure out you will have to check bank statements for full one year.

Bank Accounts – This is pretty simple. Approach the bankers and check the nominee name and joint names and claim accordingly. In case of No nominee and no joint holding then the law f the land will apply – Check whether he has left a Will? Or consult a Lawyer to prepare a succession certificate. This will also help you in liquidating/ dividing or sell off his/her real estate investments.

Share in paper-form (Non-demat) – Only in three situations that you will get physical shares – either the deceased has not dematted the shares despite having a demat account, he did not have a Demat account so could not demat it and/or maybe the Shares have been delisted or not having an ISIN number (meaning, the company has not opted for dematerialization). In all the cases first check the status of the company by visiting www.nseindia.com and if an ISIN number of the company is found then first transfer the shares in the name of joint holder or if it’s in single holding request the company to transfer the shares in legal heir/s name by producing the succession certificate (as discussed earlier). Please note while buying shares you cannot nominate anyone but joint holding is allowed. Nomination can be done only in Demat Account, meaning a person can apply for buying shares/ open a demat account in single name and can nominate somebody in the demat account.

However, to get all the above done, you should ideally try to find out a right financial Advisor who I am sure will be able to help you.

This article was also published in "Chatterpiller", the newsletter of Carma Connect

https://carmaconnect.in/newsletters/2012/10/13/finger-food-4/