Your Parents left you Shares and Mutual Funds. Now What?
The Inheritance Nobody Prepares You For
Losing a parent is hard. The incident you cannot forget in your life. Next process begins for bank, demat account, mutual fund house, registrar. They may ask a different document. Each one sending you back to square one.
For NRIs, this process hits harder. The pain of managing grief from another country, chasing apostilled documents, coordinating with Indian institutions across time zones, and hoping the nominee column was not left blank twenty years ago. Sleepless nights in entire process.
Families discover too late - if a nomination exists, transmission can happen in 7 to 15 working days for mutual funds. No nomination, no Will in order? It could stretch to six months or more.
SEBI introduced a new transmission framework in July 2026 that simplifies several steps. But experts are clear that the regulation is rarely the bottleneck. Overseas paperwork, apostille requirements, and name mismatches across documents could actually delay things.
One small thing done today, prevents months of pain later. Do check if your parents have updated nominations across every folio and demat account. A registered Will alongside, it makes the process even cleaner.
This week, worth having that one conversation at home?
Source: "Inherited shares, mutual funds or bonds? NRIs should follow these steps to claim them in India" — Mint, July 29, 2026.
Rahul Karandikar
After two decades in technology, Rahul now works with individuals and families who want to think about money with clarity, patience, and a long-term perspective.