How to Check Unclaimed Shares in IEPF: Search by Name, PAN or Folio Number

Method 1: The official IEPF search facility

The IEPF Authority runs a free search facility at www.iepfa.gov.in. According to the Authority’s own FAQ, you open “Click here for login and registration to IEPF Search Facility”, create an account or log in, and then search in one of three ways: by PAN, by basic information such as name and date of birth, or by company name with a demat ID or folio number. The system lists any entries that match. A step-by-step guide to the IEPF search facility.

It finds what has already been transferred to the IEPF. Old physical folios often have no PAN or date of birth recorded, so if one method finds nothing, try the others before concluding there is nothing there.

Whatever you find, note the company and the folio number or DP and client ID — they are what you will need to claim.

• Try every spelling. Records were typed from forms filled in decades ago: initials (S. R. Shah), the full name (Sushil Ramesh Shah), a dropped middle name, and plain misspellings are all common.
• Try maiden names for women who held shares before marriage.
• Search each joint holder, starting with the first-named holder on the certificate. More on searching by name.
• Search the company’s current name. If the certificate names a company that has since been renamed or merged, the IEPF records sit under the company that exists today. How renamed and merged companies are traced.

Method 2: Checking by PAN — what works and what does not

A PAN gets you two things: the IEPF search by PAN, which finds transferred holdings where a PAN was recorded, and a consolidated account statement (CAS) from NSDL or CDSL, which lists every demat holding and mutual fund folio against that PAN.

What no PAN search can find is a physical folio from the 1980s or 1990s with no PAN recorded against it — which is exactly where most forgotten shares are. For those, search by name and by folio as well. The full answer on searching by PAN.

Method 3: Checking by folio number or DP ID

If you have a share certificate, a dividend warrant or an old annual report, you have a folio number — and that opens more checks than any other detail. Searching unclaimed shares by folio number.

• The company’s investor page. Listed companies publish their unpaid and unclaimed dividends year by year, and many let you search by folio number, or by DP ID and client ID for demat holdings. This catches money that has not yet reached the IEPF — which is far easier to claim.
• The registrar. Write to the company’s registrar quoting the folio number and the holder’s name. A registrar can tell you what the folio holds today, after bonuses and splits, and whether dividends are unpaid. How to find a company’s registrar.

Method 4: Company-wise lists of shares about to move

Before a company transfers shares to the IEPF, it must write to the shareholder and publish a newspaper notice, and it posts the list of affected folios on its website. Until the transfer date, claiming one unpaid dividend from the company stops the shares from moving.

We keep track of the notices that are published: IEPF transfers in October 2026 and November 2026 to January 2027. If you have received a notice yourself, here is what to do with it.

Checking for a parent or grandparent who has died

This is the hardest search, because the things you need — folio numbers, a PAN, a list of companies — are exactly what the family does not have. Start with the paper trail: old dividend warrants, bank statements showing dividend credits, annual reports still arriving by post, and certificates in a locker or a cupboard. Then run the IEPF search under every version of the name. How to find shares a parent or grandparent left behind.

What your result means, and what to do next

• Found with the IEPF. The shares and dividends are recoverable through a claim on Form IEPF-5, verified by the company. How an IEPF claim works.
• Found with the company, not yet transferred. Update the folio’s KYC and bank details with the registrar and claim the unpaid dividends; that also stops the transfer. The ISR forms you will need.
• Found, but the holder has died. The shares must first be transmitted to the legal heirs. Transmission of shares after a death.
• Nothing found. That usually means the search was too narrow — one spelling, one company, or the old company name. Widen it before concluding there is nothing.

Sources

• IEPF Authority, “Your Money, Your Right” — Frequently Asked Questions (June 2026): the search facility, its three search methods, and that filing a claim is free.
• Companies Act, 2013, section 124(5) and 124(6): transfer of unclaimed dividends, and of shares whose dividends go unclaimed for seven consecutive years, to the IEPF.