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Government’s exemplary initiative to protect Investors Lost / Forgotten / Unclaimed Investment.

28, Sep 2019
Government’s exemplary initiative to protect Investors Lost / Forgotten / Unclaimed Investment.

HR Head of a leading company had joined ITC as her first company and purchased few shares of the company, but then she lost track of her investment with the change in jobs and city. After many years she realized that she had made some investment in ITC Ltd, but had no clue about it. She approached Share Samadhan and we were glad to assist her. After thorough research, we could retrieve her shares details and to her surprise, a few thousand rupees invested around 20 years ago had turned into fortunes of around 25 lakhs. She could not believe when we told her the current value of her investments

But the problem started when we pursued the case because share certificates were not available with her, further her name had changed after marriage, her dividends were not claimed. Thus we started the process with the company and complied with all the formalities and multiple requirements of the company and could recover not only the shares but also the unclaimed dividend for the last 10 years. She cherished to have recovered the investment she made when she started her career with ITC. Like her, there are many investors who is struggling to recover their Lost / Forgotten or blocked investment. The following typical issues are being faced by Investors

  • Lost Shares / Investments
  • Mutilated shares
  • Pending Transfer & Transmission of shares
  • Unclaimed Dividend
  • Unclaimed Shares
  • Physical shares
  • Unclaimed Provident Fund
  • Unclaimed Matured Insurance
  • Inoperative bank account

The Unclaimed Investment: We may call it a ‘black hole’ of investor wealth.  There are no takers for crores of money stuck up, literally! Various financial instruments such as Old Shares, Mutual Funds, Old Insurance, In-operative bank accounts, Provident Funds and post office deposits carry the ‘black hole’ of unclaimed money that nobody claims year after year.

Some data suggests that more than Rs 3.00 Lakhs crore worth of money is stuck up in shares which are in physical form.

If we notice beyond the capital markets, the amount is no less mind-boggling. A whopping Rs 60,000 crore is lying in equally crucial instruments of dormant bank accounts, unclaimed provident funds, post office savings schemes and matured insurance policies, Bonds, Debentures, etc. involving crores of investors. “This is such an issue that bothers every household. We prefer to ignore it despite the chronic presence in our daily life”

With whopping unclaimed investment in the country lot of fraud has been uncovered wherein the original investor’s money siphoned into the coffers of fraudsters.  To counter these frauds the Government has taken the following admirable initiative in recent past.

  • Shares: As per the latest notification from Government, all shares in respect of which dividend has not been paid or claimed by the shareholder for 7 consecutive years or more, all these shares will be transferred to Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) suspense account set up by the Central Government. This step by Government of India is a good move to stop fraud-related activity wherein instance happen in the past where old shares of shareholder whose dividend was not getting credited since a long time got fraudulently transferred to some other account. Good part where Government is concerned about protecting the wealth of the citizens hence they have provided the window to the investor to claim back from Government. Government is just holding and protecting the investment to avoid any fraudulent transfer of investors hard-earned money.

 

  • Provident Fund: The government has reversed a five-year-old decision and announced that inoperative employees provident fund (EPF) accounts will earn interest, a move that will cheer millions of workers. The move will benefit more than millions of holders of inoperative accounts; over Rs43,000 crore is parked in such accounts.

 

  • Depositor Education & Awareness Fund: The unclaimed amount with banks in the form of unclaimed savings or fixed deposit which remains with bank for more than 10 years goes to RBI in a fund called Depositor Education & Awareness Fund. As the Balance sheet of FY19 of RBI, the amount credit in this fund is around Rs 25,000 crore.  One can claim it back from bank even after goes to the fund with RBI but within 15 years from the date of transfer to the fund.

How to protect your wealth?

To avoid the scenario of Unclaimed Investment, One should keep a proper record of their investment whether in paper form or in electronic media. Someone in the family should be aware about all the investment made by the investor so that in case of exigencies, there is someone who can be dealt with those papers. One should also get the WILL  executed to avoid any future litigation.

 

Everyone’s Family Deserve to preserve their Investments so that the same can be help them to sail through a troubled time. Please do not let those investments just ruined in old papers. Convert it in liquid cash or keep in Demat if possible. But for other instruments details which are just lying in physical papers, in those cases what to do ? its a very big question mark.

Keep your investment document in Safe digital format with the company who can help in the transfer or transmission and can provide expert advice who can help you recovering your old investment. The investor must keep their investment details in digital format where data is encrypted (not visible to others without password or login). Without even giving them any investment document or disclosing the amount of investment one case store their investment related information in digital form so that the same can be recovered in even any contingencies such earthquake, fire or any other disaster or sudden death of the investor.

So happy investing, You deserve your money back. keep saving for future and plan in advance to protect the wealth from becoming a victim of any financial disaster.

Author,

Vikash Jain

Happy Investing

Please free to reach out to us at Samadhan@sharesamadhan.com

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