In the post, uploaded a month back, the user shared that despite his father being financially disciplined, the family spent nearly four months to identify bank accounts, fixed deposits, insurance policies and other assets after his death.
“After my father died, we thought the hard part would be the grief. It wasn’t. The hard part was the paperwork,” the Redditor noted.
Investments unknown to the family
The person also detailed how the father had two banks accounts that the family was previously unaware of, while a fixed deposit only came to light after a letter arrived at their old house address.
Apart from bank account and deposits, the family also discovered later that the deceased father had a PPF account that had been active for 22 years. The user added that they learnt about the insurance policy only after the deceased father’s insurance agent contacted them.
A family’s 4-month struggle to access financial assets
The Redditor described how the family spent nearly four months navigating paperwork and repeated bank visits to access the deceased father’s financial assets. The process involved producing death certificates, succession certificates, notarised affidavits, while the user’s mother had to travel to bank branches in another city twice.
Reflecting on the experience, the user added that the father was not financially careless or disorganised. “He was actually quite careful about money. He just never thought to tell us where everything was. Or maybe he thought he had more time,” he wrote in the post.
What experts advised to avoid such a situation?
According to Alay Razvi, Managing Partner at Accord Juris, every earning individual should organise certain financial documents for their family in case of unforeseen situations such as death. These include:
According to Rohit Jain, Managing Partner at Singhania & Co., families can reduce delays by ensuring every bank account, locker, insurance policy, demat account and mutual fund folio has updated nominations. He added that joint accounts should carry clear survivorship clauses such as ‘either or survivor.’
“RBI advises that banks should settle nominee/survivor claims with minimal documents and without insisting on succession certificate/probate in such cases. SEBI similarly treats nomination as the mechanism enabling claim of securities/MF proceeds,” he noted.
