Unclaimed Shares Search by Name: How to Search the IEPF and Companies Using a Name
When you have no folio number and no PAN on record, a name is all you have. Here is how to search with it properly — because the most common reason a name search finds nothing is the name itself.
When a name search is the only option
Most forgotten shares were bought on paper in the 1980s and 1990s, long before PAN was linked to share registers. For those holdings — and for a parent or grandparent who has died — the shareholder’s name is usually the only thing the family has to search with.
The IEPF search facility at www.iepfa.gov.in lets you search by basic information such as name and date of birth. Companies and their registrars can also trace a folio from a name, an address and the company name. Both work far better if you search the name the way it was written then, not the way you write it now.
The name variants to try
Records were typed from handwritten forms. Take a shareholder called Sushil Ramesh Shah. His shares could be recorded under any of these, and you should try each:
- Initials: S R Shah, S. R. Shah, S.R. Shah
- Partial names: Sushil R Shah, Sushil Shah
- Full name: Sushil Ramesh Shah
- Spelling variants: Susheel, Sushill — and the surname spelt as the family once spelt it
- Order: surname first on some old registers — Shah Sushil Ramesh
Names that change
- Married women: search the maiden name for shares bought before marriage, and the married name for later ones.
- Joint holdings: search each holder, starting with the first-named one on the certificate.
- Father’s or husband’s name: old registers often recorded it alongside the holder’s; it helps confirm a match when a common name returns many results.
- A different date of birth: if the name-and-date search finds nothing, the date may simply not be on an old record — try company with folio number instead.
Where to search with a name
- The IEPF search facility at www.iepfa.gov.in, by basic information — for shares already transferred to the IEPF. Step-by-step guide.
- The company’s registrar — write with the holder’s name, the address they lived at when the shares were bought, and the company name, and ask for the folio and what it holds. How to find the registrar.
- The family’s papers — a dividend warrant, a bank credit or an annual report turns a name into a folio number, which is a far stronger search. Search by folio number.
Searching for a parent or grandparent who has died
Search exactly as above, under every version of their name. Recovering what you find needs the shares to be transmitted to the legal heirs first, so collect the death certificate and any will early. How to find shares a parent left behind, and transmission after a death.
When the name on the record does not match your documents
Finding the shares under “S R Shah” when your PAN says “Sushil Ramesh Shah” is normal, and it is fixable. SEBI treats a minor mismatch like this as needing only a self-attested copy of one identity document. What SEBI requires for a name mismatch.
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.
Our Step-by-Step Process
Give us the name
And anything else you know: the city the person lived in, the companies the family held, roughly when.
We search every variant
The IEPF facility and company records, under every spelling, initial and maiden name that applies.
You get what we found
Each holding, where it sits, and roughly what it is worth today.
Recover it if you want
No advance fee: we are paid only when the shares reach your demat account.
The Global Equity Solutions Advantage
Every variant, systematically
Initials, spellings, maiden names and joint holders — the searches people miss.
IEPF and company records
Including shares not yet transferred to the IEPF.
Name mismatches handled
We prepare what the registrar needs when the record and your documents differ.
Free search
No charge to search and no obligation afterwards.
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Free initial assessment — zero commitment.
Give us a name — we search every variant, free
Common Questions Answered
Yes. The IEPF search facility at www.iepfa.gov.in lets you search by basic information such as name and date of birth, after registering.
Usually because the record uses initials or an old spelling, the shares were under a maiden name or a joint holder’s name, the record has no date of birth, or the shares have not been transferred to the IEPF yet.
Search every version of his name in the IEPF facility, write to the registrars of companies he is likely to have held, and look for dividend warrants or bank credits that give a folio number.
Usually, yes. Write to the company’s registrar with the holder’s name, the address at the time and the company name, and ask what folio is registered.
Yes. A minor mismatch needs only a self-attested copy of one identity document under SEBI’s rules. Name mismatch rules.
Search the IEPF facility by name and by PAN, then write to the registrars of companies you may have held with your name and the address you had then. Old dividend warrants or bank credits give folio numbers, which make the search far more precise.
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