Did you know that about Rs 1.96 lakh crore worth of assets are lying unclaimed in India’s financial system? This is money that people earned through years of hard work — deposited in banks, invested in savings schemes, insured, kept in PF accounts, invested in mutual funds and shares.
“₹1.96 lakh crore is lying unclaimed—could some of it be yours? That’s the scale of forgotten wealth—bank deposits, insurance, EPF, mutual funds & shares—scattered across India’s financial system… Most heirs don’t know what to claim because plain name-based search is largely disallowed. A proposed Central Unclaimed Property Authority (CUPA) could change that—overcoming regulatory resistance and finally revealing the full extent of unclaimed assets,” Harsh Roongta, Founder, Fee Only Investment Advisers LLP, wrote on social media platform ‘X’.
In the case of equities, unclaimed shares worth over Rs 84,000 crore are stuck with IEPF (Investor Education and Protection Fund). Thousands of investors have their unclaimed shares lying with the IEPF, which is waiting for legal claimants to come forward and make their claims against these shares.
What is IEPF?
IEPF Authority was set up under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India as a statutory body under Companies Act, 2013 to administer the Investor Education and Protection Fund with the objective of promoting investor education, awareness and protection.
As per the IEPF 2016 Rules, all shares for which dividends have not been paid or claimed for a period of seven consecutive years or more by shareholders are transferred to the IEPF demat account.
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How big is this problem of unclaimed assets lying with the government, banks and other establishments?
These figures available on Fee Only website are surprisingly huge, as listed shares worth Rs 84,393 crore are lying with the IEPF, as of September 30, 2024. While dividends received by IEPF stood at Rs 5,700 crore. Regarding bank deposits, a total of Rs 42,270 crore was unclaimed until March 31, 2023. Unclaimed posts deposits stood at Rs 32,273 crore as of September 2020. More than Rs 8,500 crore was lying unclaimed on account of inoperative EPF amounts with the EPFO till March 2024. Unclaimed life insurance amounts stood at Rs 20,062 crore. Over Rs 2,600 crore of mutual fund assets remained unclaimed in financial year 2023, according to data shared by the website.
These data are not independently verified by the Financial Express.
What is the biggest obstacle in claiming these assets?
The problem is not just that the money is stuck, but that the people who are entitled to this money do not know that this money is for them. In India, you cannot search by name in almost any system except IEPF. That is, if your father had made an investment for you and you did not find any document after his death, you may never know that there is anything in your name.
Harsh Roongta, also a personal finance expert, says that the real problem is not fraud, but that people do not know that there is any property lying for them. And the system in place makes the search so difficult that people give up, he said.
What could be the solution? Need for CUPA
A proposal has come up as a solution to this problem – to form a Central Unclaimed Property Authority (CUPA). This will be a central authority that will bring together the data of unclaimed properties of all banks, insurance companies, PF, mutual funds and shares, so that people can search just by their name to see what is pending for them.
A Supreme Court panel has also recommended the formation of an authority like CUPA. But the path to this is not easy – there are different regulators, different rules, and there is a lot of resistance.
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What is happening around the world?
India has good examples from around the world to learn from:
In the US, every state has its own “Unclaimed Property” website, where just by entering the name, it is known whether there is any property in your name or not.
In the UK, the government itself manages unclaimed assets and makes people aware of how to get them back.
What should be done next?
In India, some concrete steps will have to be taken to reach this forgotten wealth to the right people:
Formation of CUPA – a central body that tracks unclaimed money of all financial institutions at one place.
Centralized search platform – a portal where any citizen can check if there is any property in their name by just entering the name.
Awareness campaign – a campaign should be run across the country so that people know that any member of their family may have unclaimed property and how to claim it.
Making the process easier – documentation and verification should be simplified so that even the common citizen can understand it and claim it.
If India implements these suggestions, millions of families could get access to the wealth their ancestors have saved for them — not just financially, but emotionally as well.