Forgotten
Wealth,
Recovered.

When a company's dividends go unclaimed for seven consecutive years, both the dividends and the underlying shares are transferred to the Investor Education and Protection Fund. Recovering them means filing Form IEPF-5 online, then sending the physical claim package — indemnity bond, advance receipt, original share certificates or transfer deed, and KYC documents — to the company's Nodal Officer.

The company verifies your claim and reports to the IEPF Authority, which then credits the shares to your demat account and the dividends to your bank account. The paperwork is exacting and rejections are common. Most of our work is getting the package right the first time.

This is transmission rather than transfer, and it does not require a stamped transfer deed. You will need the death certificate, proof that you are the legal heir — a succession certificate, probate, or legal heir certificate, or for holdings below the threshold SEBI prescribes, an indemnity bond and affidavit — the original certificates if the holding is physical, and completed ISR-1, ISR-2 and SH-13 forms lodged with the Registrar and Transfer Agent.

Where there are several heirs, no-objection letters from the others are usually required. We prepare the full package and handle the correspondence with the RTA.

UDGAM is the Reserve Bank of India's centralised portal for searching unclaimed deposits across banks. Accounts that stay inactive for ten years are transferred to the RBI's Depositor Education and Awareness Fund.

UDGAM tells you which bank holds an account in a given name. Recovering the money still means making a claim with that bank, with KYC and — where the account holder has died — legal heir documentation.

Yes, but they cannot be sold or transferred while they remain in physical form — SEBI requires dematerialisation first. Check the reverse of each certificate: if the Memorandum of Transfers has been filled in, that certificate has been superseded and a newer folio exists.

Also confirm the company still exists under that name. Decades of mergers, demergers and name changes mean the certificate in your hand often belongs to a different listed entity today.

Usually, yes. The route is Form ISR-4 together with an affidavit and indemnity bond, and for larger holdings a police complaint and a newspaper advertisement. The company then issues duplicate securities in dematerialised form.

It takes longer than a standard claim, but a lost certificate is not a lost holding.

It varies, and we would rather tell you that plainly than quote a number we cannot stand behind. A straightforward KYC regularisation may take two to three months. IEPF claims and transmission matters typically run six to eighteen months, depending on the RTA's backlog, whether the documents are complete, and whether the company raises objections.

We give you a realistic estimate after the discovery review, and we tell you when a case is likely to be difficult.

Nothing upfront, and nothing at all if we do not recover. Our fee is an agreed percentage of what is actually recovered, set in writing before we begin.

Recovered shares and funds are credited by the institution directly to your demat and bank accounts. Asset Fetch never receives, holds, or routes client money.