How to Add a Nominee to Your Shares, So Your Family Never Has to Claim Them

It is worth saying the quiet part first. A large share of the work we do would not exist if the original shareholder had spent twenty minutes filling in a nomination form. The certificates would still be in a cupboard, but the family would have a straightforward route to them instead of an indemnity bond, NOCs from five siblings and, in some cases, a court.

So here is how to do it for your own holdings, and what to tell your parents to do for theirs.

Physical shares: Form SH-13

Nomination on securities held in physical form is made on Form SH-13, sent to the company's registrar. It names the person who should receive the securities on your death, and it can be filed at any time.

• To change or cancel an existing nomination, the form is SH-14
• Both are signed by the holder or holders and lodged with the registrar, not with your broker
• Joint holders sign together; a nomination on a joint folio takes effect only after all holders have died

If you would rather have no nomination at all, that is a positive choice you have to record rather than simply leave blank: Form ISR-3 is the declaration to opt out. Registrars have been asking holders to do one or the other, so a folio with neither on file can end up flagged.

Demat accounts: through your depository participant

Securities in demat form are nominated at the account level rather than per company, through the depository participant that holds the account. One nomination covers everything in it, which is a considerable practical advantage over physical folios where each company has to be dealt with separately.

Most participants now allow this online with an e-sign, and it is the single strongest argument for dematerialising old physical holdings rather than leaving them on paper: one form instead of fifteen.

What a nominee is — and is not

This is where most people are wrong, and the error causes real family disputes.

A nomination decides who the company may safely deal with. It does not decide who finally owns the asset. The nominee receives the securities and holds them, but the beneficial entitlement still follows succession law — the will, or where there is none, the personal law that applied to the deceased. A nominee who is not the sole heir holds for the estate.

In practical terms that means two things. Nominating one child does not disinherit the others. And nomination is not a substitute for a will — it is a mechanism for getting the asset released quickly, not for deciding who ends up with it.

If you want a particular person to actually own the shares, say so in a will. Use the nomination to make the release simple, and the will to make the ownership clear. Who counts as a legal heir sets out what happens when there is no will.

Why it matters so much in practice

Compare the two routes after a death.

With a nomination: the nominee produces the death certificate and their own KYC, and the registrar transmits the shares. No indemnity bond from the other heirs, no affidavit-cum-NOC, no legal heir certificate, no court.

Without one: the heirs have to be established, every heir who is not claiming must sign an affidavit-cum-NOC, an indemnity bond is required, and above SEBI's value thresholds a succession certificate or probate becomes necessary — which means a district court, court fees and months. What transmission without a nominee involves.

The difference is not marginal. It is frequently the difference between a few weeks and a year.

While you are at it, fix the rest of the folio

The other reason holdings go unclaimed is that the registrar could not reach anybody. If you are writing to them anyway:

• Update the address and bank mandate: with Form ISR-1 if either has changed
• Check the PAN and KYC: are complete on the folio, since incomplete folios get frozen for payments
• Register an email and mobile number: , which is the cheapest insurance against a returned letter
• Consider dematerialising: , which collapses all of the above into one account

What each ISR form is for, and how to update address and KYC on physical shares.

Tell your parents

Most of the families who contact us are dealing with a holding they did not know existed, belonging to someone who can no longer explain it. Two conversations prevent nearly all of that: ask where the certificates and demat statements are, and ask whether a nominee is recorded.

It is an awkward conversation and it takes ten minutes. The alternative is the process described on the rest of this site.

If it is already too late

If you are reading this after a death and there is no nomination, the claim is still entirely doable — it is what we do. Start with what the shareholder actually held, or send us the details and we will run the search free of charge.

Forms and thresholds are revised from time to time. Confirm the current requirement with the registrar before you post anything.