How family members or legal heirs can trace the assets of the deceased person

The deceased’s family members or legal heirs can begin by searching any physical documents, or contact their Chartered Accountant (CA) or tax advisor, if any. Otherwise, they may rely on the Income Tax Return (ITR) or Annual Information Statement (AIS) of the deceased. But, these require access to that person’s mobile phone and PAN. If you don’t have a PAN, is there any way? According to Nadia Sarguroh, principal associate of MZM Legal, LLP, one way to do this could be to apply for re-issue of the PAN card of the deceased to his legal heir. “This application will most likely be rejected as there is no defined procedure for re-issuance of PAN card of the deceased. If it is rejected, you can possibly approach the courts in a writ jurisdiction to issue a direction to the IT officials to re-issue the PAN of the deceased to the family members,” says Sarguroh.

Physical Documents and ID: One can start by searching the bank and other investment documents such as the bank passbook or check book of the deceased, diary with notes, or PAN card and bank locker keys at home – all of which can be useful for locating the property. can.

“We have seen that even relatively less organized people tend to collect all their disorganized material (documents) in one place. It can be a drawer, box or shelf, a place where they put everything,” says Vishal Dhawan, founder and CEO, Plan Ahead Wealth Advisors. Past bank statements provide a mine of information on income, expenses and investments including interest. Income from deposits and dividends from shares. However, getting access to the bank account will depend on whether the claimant is enrolled or not.

CA/Tax Consultant: Yet another important source of information can be the CA or tax advisor of the deceased person. “CAs are likely to have too many details about an individual’s investment. He can give clues on bank accounts, what kind of income is recorded in Income Tax Return (ITR), which in turn can be used to trace investments made,” Nishant Agarwal, Senior Managing Partner, CFP – Consultant, says ASK. Private money.

ITR: If the deceased person was filing the return himself, the family members can try to access the tax return of the deceased person on the Income Tax (IT) portal.

Neeraj Aggarwal, partner, Nangia Anderson India, says that knowing the PAN of the deceased person and having access to their mobile phone is essential. “If the deceased person was registered on the IT portal and the return was filed, the ITR details can be accessed from the portal by logging in with PAN. The password can be reset on the IT portal by generating the OTP sent to the mobile number linked to Aadhaar.”

AIS: According to Agarwal, AIS can be a source of comprehensive information, however there may be some problems with the information provided as the system is still in its initial stage. AIS provides information on transactions like purchase of assets, interest income from savings accounts, fixed deposits (FDs) and other investments, dividends, sale and purchase of stocks and mutual fund (MF) units, etc. For example, where it pertains to the property, AIS will display the property’s address and details such as the date and amount of payment. Banks will be able to see the amount deposited, bank name and account number for interest on savings and FD accounts.

MF investments: Legal heirs, secondary holders or nominees can claim these investments. The process of transferring mutual funds in their name is easy when the survivor has the PAN card number and folio number of all the investments of the deceased.

But what if the survivor does not know about MF investment? If the survivors have access to the deceased’s email account or phone messages to access the OTP, the process is easy and stress-free. In this case, one can generate a Consolidated Account Statement (CAS) using the email address and get the details of all MF investments linked to that email. (Visit https://www.camsonline.com/Investors/Statements/Consolved-Account-Statement.)

In a scenario where there is no will and survivors do not have access to the CA, investment advisor and lawyer of the deceased, the process of tracing MF investments may take some time and effort.

The process of locating and transferring MF is simple if you have the PAN card number, email address and phone number of the deceased besides death certificate and proof of relationship with the deceased.

Investing in MFs in India is regulated by three RTAs – CAMS, Kefintech and Franklin Templeton. Each RTA has a list of AMCs under it. Hence, you need to approach all the RTAs to find out the investment. A living claimant should first approach the RTA with a death certificate and proof of relationship with the deceased. “We first confirm the death of the investor to prevent any fraudulent claims,” a CAMS spokesperson explained. Once this is verified, RTAs assist the surviving claimants in locating the MF Holdings with the help of PAN card, email address and personal details. of the deceased

“Sometimes the PAN card cannot be linked to the investment and hence we take additional steps to verify whether any investment exists under the same name and registered address which may not be linked to PAN or email address . Our dedicated Transmission Helpdesk specializes in such hand-holding”, said a CAMS spokesperson.

In short, the contenders have to visit the nearest RTA branch to start the transmission process. If claimants have no information or access to email addresses and phone messages, there is neither a well-documented process available online nor are there any such guidelines for locating investments. Once the RTA verifies the death of the investor and genuineness of the claimants, they facilitate access to the list of all investments made by the deceased and also initiate the transmission process.

shares: To find out the stock holdings (held in demat form) of a deceased person, you need one important information – which broker/bank the deceased person had a demat account with. To find out who the broker/bank is, you would need to have access to the deceased’s email id or at least a mobile phone. If you have the latter, you can go through SMS to retrieve this information. Then, you need to approach the broker/bank with the transmission request form and relevant documents.

Alternatively, access to the decedent’s bank statements may be helpful. Any share buy/sell transaction through joint trading account will be reflected in the linked bank account statement. Note, while AIS also shows stock holdings, it does not show the name of the depository participant.

(Sebi-registered investment advisor Namrata Patel contributed to this story.)