Legal / 02

Terms of
Engagement

Last updated: 28 July 2026

These terms govern how we work together. They are written to be read, not to be survived. Where a signed engagement letter says something different, the engagement letter takes precedence.

1. What we do

Asset Fetch provides advisory and documentation services for the recovery of unclaimed financial assets in India. That includes tracing assets, preparing and lodging forms and supporting documents, and corresponding with Registrars and Transfer Agents, companies, banks, insurers and the Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority on your behalf.

We are a consultancy. We are not your lawyer, your accountant, or your investment adviser, and nothing we provide is legal, tax, or investment advice. Where a matter requires a lawyer — a contested succession, a court application, a dispute between heirs — we will say so and work alongside counsel you appoint.

2. Engagement

An engagement begins only when we have both agreed its scope in writing and you have signed the engagement letter and any authorisations the institutions require. Enquiries, discovery reviews and preliminary conversations do not create an engagement and carry no charge.

3. Fees — success fee only

• Nothing is payable upfront. We do not charge consultation, registration, processing, or file-opening fees.
• If there is no recovery, there is no fee.
• Our fee is a percentage of the value actually recovered, agreed in writing before work begins and stated in the engagement letter.
• Applicable taxes are charged in addition, as the law requires.
• Out-of-pocket costs that a claim genuinely requires — statutory fees, notarisation, stamp paper, newspaper advertisements, courier and postal charges, or court fees — are payable by you. We will tell you what these are before they are incurred, and we do not mark them up.

The fee becomes payable once the assets are credited to you.

4. Recoveries are paid directly to you

Asset Fetch never receives, holds, or routes client funds or securities. Recovered shares are credited by the institution directly to your demat account, and recovered money directly to your bank account. At no point do your assets pass through any account belonging to Asset Fetch or to any person connected with it.

Anyone claiming to represent Asset Fetch and asking you to transfer money or securities to them is not acting for us. Please tell us immediately if this happens.

5. What we need from you

• Documents and information that are accurate, complete and genuine.
• Prompt signature and notarisation of the forms we prepare, since most institutional timelines run from the date of lodgement.
• Notice of anything that changes the picture — another heir coming forward, a will surfacing, a parallel claim already lodged, or a dispute over the asset.

We rely on what you tell us. We are not able to verify the authenticity of third-party documents, and we are not responsible for outcomes that follow from information that turns out to be incorrect or incomplete.

6. No guarantee of outcome or timeline

We do not guarantee that any claim will succeed, and we do not guarantee how long one will take. Recovery depends on the records of companies, RTAs, banks, insurers and government authorities, on statutory processes, and on the completeness of the evidence available — none of which are within our control.

Any estimate of time or value we give is an informed estimate based on comparable matters. It is not a commitment, and it should not be relied on as one.

7. Confidentiality

We treat your family's affairs as confidential and disclose information only to the institutions a claim requires, with your authorisation, or where the law compels us. This obligation continues after the engagement ends. How we handle personal data is set out in our Privacy Policy.

8. Ending the engagement

You may end an engagement at any time, in writing. So may we, if a conflict arises, if the information we are given proves unreliable, or if a matter turns out to be outside our competence — and we will hand over the file and say plainly why.

If an engagement ends after a claim has been lodged and that claim is subsequently successful on the strength of work we did, the agreed fee remains payable on the amount recovered. Out-of-pocket costs already incurred remain payable in any event.

9. Limitation of liability

Nothing in these terms limits liability for fraud or for anything that cannot lawfully be limited. Subject to that, our total liability arising out of an engagement is limited to the fees actually paid to us under it, and we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of investment gains that might have been made had an asset been recovered sooner.

10. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of India. The courts at Hyderabad, Telangana have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from them.

11. Changes

We may update these terms. The version in force for your matter is the one in effect on the date of your engagement letter.