How to claim mutual funds after the death of the investor

Before you can claim, you need to know which fund houses to approach. A Consolidated Account Statement (CAS) is the fastest way: it lists mutual fund holdings across all AMCs against a single PAN.

A CAS covers holdings across every fund house against one PAN, and securities held in demat form too. It can be viewed and downloaded from MFCentral, the joint service hub run by KFintech and CAMS, or requested from the depositories. Where the units are held in demat form they will appear on the depository statement instead, and are claimed through the demat route rather than this one.

Also check the investor's bank statements for SIP debits and the income tax returns for capital gains and dividend entries. Both surface holdings the family did not know about.

The paperwork depends entirely on this, so settle it first.

You are the surviving joint holder. The simplest case. The deceased holder's name is deleted and the units continue in the survivor's name. No transmission of ownership is involved.

You are the registered nominee. The standard transmission route, and the one most of this page describes.

There is no nominee and no joint holder. The units pass to the legal heirs, and the fund house will want either a succession document or an indemnity-and-NOC package, depending on the value.

AMFI standardises the forms — the current set comes from its Best Practice Guidelines circular of 31 January 2024 — and which one you need depends on the situation: Form T1 to delete a deceased second or third joint holder, Form T2 where the *first* holder has died, and Form T3 for transmission to a nominee or legal heir. (There is also Form T4 for a change of Karta on the death of a registered Karta, and Form T5 where an HUF is dissolved.) Download the current version from the AMC's own site rather than reusing a copy someone sent you — AMFI revises the guidelines periodically.

Two thresholds matter. Where the transmission value exceeds ₹5 lakh, the claimant's signature must be attested by a Notary Public or a Judicial Magistrate First Class. And where there is no registered nomination, the indemnity-bond route — a bond furnished jointly by all the legal heirs, without any court document — is available only while the aggregate value across all folios is up to ₹2 lakh. Above that, expect to be asked for a succession certificate, probate or letters of administration.

The claimant's KYC must be complete: a transmission is only completed once the claimant's KYC status reads "KYC complied". Do that before you file rather than after — it is the single most common cause of a returned request.

Submit at the AMC's own investor service centre or its registrar's office. Get a stamped acknowledgement with a reference number — without one you have no way to escalate.

No single industry-wide deadline is published for completing a transmission, so the AMC's own stated turnaround is what you hold it to. If it slips, escalate first to the AMC's investor relations officer and then through SEBI's SCORES grievance platform. Both routes work and both are free.

Once transmission is complete the units are yours to hold. Succession and inheritance are expressly excluded from what counts as a "transfer" for capital gains, so the transmission itself is not a taxable event — and India has no separate inheritance tax, so receiving the units is not taxable income either.

What you inherit along with the units is the previous owner's cost. Gains are computed against what the deceased paid, not the value on the date of death, and arise only when you redeem. Where the units were acquired before 1 April 2001, the cost may instead be taken as the higher of actual cost or the fair market value on 1 April 2001.

This has a real consequence: redeeming immediately to "close everything" can create an avoidable tax bill on gains that accrued during someone else's lifetime. Worth a conversation with a tax adviser before you sell, particularly for long-held equity funds.