Imagine cleaning out your grandfather’s old cupboard and getting a neatly folded file of yellowing papers. Among those papers is a share certificate issued decades ago, mentioning that he owned around 100 shares of a well-known company. No one in the family remembers these investments, and over the years, dividends were never claimed, addresses changed, and paperwork was forgotten. What seems like a surprising discovery is actually more common than you’d think and these forgotten investments are what we now call unclaimed shares.
In addition to forgotten physical certificates and unclaimed dividends, unclaimed shares can also arise from legacy trading practices. A few years ago, securities transactions were often executed through telephonic trading, where investors placed buy or sell orders by calling sub-brokers or third-party intermediaries. In certain cases, these trades were not settled due to reasons such as insufficient funds, operational lapses, or missed confirmations by the intermediary. Over time, investors either remained unaware of these unsettled positions or failed to follow up, resulting in such shares eventually being transferred to the IEPF, without the investor’s knowledge.
Moreover, there are cases when the investors have applied for IPOs decades ago and received partial or full allotments in physical form. Over time, allotment advice or share certificates got misplaced, and the investment was completely forgotten. All of these shares are now lying unclaimed in the IEPF.
You would be surprised to know that nearly Rs. 2 Lakh crore worth of shares are unclaimed and transferred to IEPF. In this blog we will learn about unclaimed shares and the process to redeem it.
What are Unclaimed Shares?
Unclaimed shares are basically those shares which you or your family members owned long ago but have not been actively managed. The dividends were never claimed, no updated paperwork, or maybe your personal details like bank, email, and address changed but you forgot to update it. Most of the time it's not even your fault. In most cases, our parents and grandparents invested in these shares and got physical certificates which they misplaced or forgot to dematerialise.
In India, as per government regulations, if the shares remain unclaimed for seven years, they are transferred to Investor Education and Protection Fund or IEPF. There is a whole lot of paperwork required to reclaim it and
Jeevantika helps investors or their families to recover it in a hassle-free manner.
How do Shares Become Unclaimed?
The shares are not randomly transferred to IEPF. The whole process takes nearly seven years of no claiming. Suppose you had shares of a company and you received dividend receipts but you did not receive it, received but never encashed it, or your address or bank account changed but you did not update it. If this happens for seven years continuously, these shares are then transferred to IEPF.
The motive of IEPF is to protect the rights and capital of investors and ensure that these shares are claimed by its rightful owners. This is however misunderstood as taking away the investor’s rights.
What is IEPF and Why does it Hold Unclaimed Shares?
IEPF or Investors Education and Protection Fund is a fund established by the government that holds all the unclaimed shares, debentures, dividends, and matured deposits with itself so that they don’t get lost or misused.
It is a government initiative to make sure that an individual’s hard earned money doesn’t go wasted and can again be returned to its owner.
How to Check Unclaimed Shares?
You can check your unclaimed shares on the IEPF portal. The process is as follows:
2. Login/Register: Look for the "Search Facility" or "Unclaimed Amounts" section and register as a new user or log in if you already have an account.
3. Search for Your Shares: Use your PAN, Demat ID, Folio Number, or the Company Name to search for any unclaimed securities.
4. Find Your Details: If your shares are listed, you'll see details about the unclaimed amounts.
Alternatively, you can also check your unclaimed shares on
Jeevantika.com. The process is super-easy and hassle-free. You just need to follow a few steps which are as follows:
2. Fill-in the details including your name, mobile number, email-address, etc.
3. Go to “search investor” and put in the details of the investor and the company for which you hold the certificate.
4. Once you fill in the details, you can find the details whether your shares are transferred to IEPF or not and start the process to reclaim it with the platform.
How to Recover Unclaimed Shares?
To claim your shares from IEPF, an investor needs to submit a few documents and complete the formalities. Following is the process to recover the unclaimed shares:
1. Identify and list down the shares that got transferred to IEPF.
2. Collect all the documents including share certificate, PAN card of the investor, bank proof, address proof, KYC, and death certificate in case the owner is no longer alive.
3. Fill in the IEPF form from the portal.
4. Send physical documents to the RTA.
5.The company after receiving the documents verifies those and once the IEPF authority approves it the ownership of the shares are transferred to you.
The whole process can be complex as it requires a lot of paperwork.
Jeevantika aims to help you claim your shares from IEPF by preparing all the documents for you and making the whole process hassle-free for you.
Final Word
Unclaimed shares are not lost forever. They are simply waiting to be claimed by their rightful owners. What often starts as forgotten paperwork or an old physical share certificate can translate into significant financial value if addressed in time. While the IEPF recovery process may seem complex and paperwork-heavy, taking the first step is what truly matters. By understanding how unclaimed shares work and seeking the right support, investors and their families can reclaim long-forgotten wealth with confidence and ease, ensuring that hard-earned investments finally find their way back home.
Launch your Graphy