Nominee for investments is important... app that will contact them

Some Rs. 35,000 crore of rupees are lying in banks, life insurance corporations, post offices, provident fund, income tax, and mutual fund offices, without being used for any purpose. Term expired Fixed Deposits, PPF Balance, insurance amounts after maturity, dividends from mutual funds etc., are lying idle. It is surprising to know that LIC alone has nearly Rs. 5,000 crore of unclaimed funds. Provident Fund office has nearly Rs. 27,000 crore of unclaimed money.

There are many reasons for thousands of crores of rupees, lying idle with financial institutions. Not nominating anyone for the investments made, not informing the nominees that they have been nominated, after such persons die, their family members not claiming the amounts, as they are not aware...like this, there are many reasons.

Some people keep updating the information regarding nominees. Some even write their will, with foresight. That is why, claiming investments and other benefits becomes easy, after they die. It is also important to keep a record of all the investments made and also the details of the nomination made. Family members should be informed about this.

Smart phone comes in handy in such matters, as it has apps for all such tasks. It is going to be the key for all such matters. Apps are available for investments, policies, other money matters as well as nominees for all these. Nominee app mobile application is one of them. It will connect with your nominees, regarding your financial affairs. For example, let us say you have opened an Fixed Deposit (FD) account in a bank. You can share the deposit details with your nominee through this app. Supposing you have taken term policy and your spouse is your nominee. Then the app will be useful, not just to store the policy number, company name and other details, but also to  share this information with your spouse. The insurance company has no say in this.

There are columns in the nominee app, like products, nominees and nominated products. You can specify the nature of your investments in the products column. There are many categories under this, like accounts, deposits, insurances, loans, investments, plans, schemes, private transactions and miscellaneous. Data concerning bank accounts, savings, current accounts, FDs, bank locker, demat account, etc. can be stored. Under insurance, term insurance, life insurance, life insurance policy and motor vehicle insurance details can be saved. Under loans, home loan, personal loan gold loan etc., can be saved. Under investments, mutual funds, PPF, EPF, plans, schemes, chit funds, children's plans details can be saved. Private transactions mean giving or taking personal loans.

Download the app and install it. Fill in all the details of your investments as per the categories. Click on Add Nominee. Full name of the nominee, their relation with you, email id, mobile number, guardian name etc. should be provided. You can even upload any financial documents from Google Drive, in to the app. Supposing you have your insurance documents in Google drive. You can upload these in to the app. Others cannot access any document or information of yours, as per the rules of the app. Only the file number will be accessed.

Once you have entered the nominee details, they will be sent to SMS or mail to the nominee. The details of the product, for which you have chosen the nominee, will reach him or her through this. Only the necessary information will be shared.

Nominee details can be deleted anytime you wish. You can appoint anyone as your nominee freshly. The previous nominee will get the information regarding the scrapping of his name. However, he will not get the information regarding the new nominee. You can also delete information regarding any of the products. If the nominee is using the same app, he will also get this information.  Nominee details will be in nominated products column. If the date for making payment for premium of life insurance is given, the nominee also will be intimated. Because of this app, all the finance related information and nominee details are obtained in one place. However, it is better to read the terms and conditions and decide, before using the app.

When an account holder dies, all the cash in his account, lockers and the valuables in them, has to be handed over to his nominee. For this, the deceased should have nominated someone beforehand. If you want to avoid the headache of legal heir certificates, court order copies etc, you will need to register as nominee. Form DA1 is available for this purpose. It can be taken from the bank branch, or downloaded from the bank website online. You must provide the details of the account holder, deposits made and nominee details. The account holder should sign on this. If it is a joint account, everyone need to sign on this. There is a possibility of choosing just one nominee for a bank account. You can also choose different nominees for different accounts.

If you have to remove a nominee from existing bank records, there is another form called Form DA2, which has to be filled in and submitted.