How to manage finances of a deceased person

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The second wave of covid-19 has claimed more than 3 lakh lives in India. The death of a loved one is devastating for any family and it becomes even more harrowing if the deceased person is the sole breadwinner.

In such a case it is important that the family knows how to deal with the financial matters of the deceased and does not suffer from any harassment.

How to claim the insurance of the deceased person? How to find about their investments and manage the bank account?

The Money9 Helpline pledges to help you, and provide you with the answers to these questions and lessen your pain in terms of financial stress.

Money9 Helpline hosted Kshitiz Mahajan, co-Founder of Complete Circle Consultants, to help people understand how to manage the finances of a deceased.

Here are some questions:

Caller 1, Kolkata: My husband passed away last month at the age of 41. He had a LIC policy, a few FDs & a corpus of provident funds. How can I get access to his savings?

Mahajan: If you are aware of the FDs, bank account, LIC policy then check who is the nominee. If you are the nominee then you have to submit the documents along with your husband’s death certificate and submit the claim form. In case you are not the nominee and someone else like mother or father is the nominee then discuss with them and follow the same procedure of claiming the FDs etc.

In the case of a bank account, if it was a joint account and you are the joint account holder, then the money will come directly to you. If not, then you should check who is the nominee, it is the same process to claim the account you have to submit documents, and a death certificate. In case there is no nominee then the ‘will’ will supersede. If the will is also not there then you have to sit with the family and decide on the matter.

For the provident fund, the sum will go to the nominee, so you should check that also.

Roshan Gandhi: I lost my father 20 days back. He had some investments and an insurance policy, but I don’t have any details. Our home loan is also dues for payment. How can I get details of his investments? Can his insurance policy be used for loan repayment?

Mahajan: I suggest you check from your home loan first, most probably it will be covered in the insurance. If not you can definitely use your father’s insurance policy for loan repayment, it is very much doable.

Maulik Saini, Gujarat: I lost my father due to Covid-19. I have received the insurance claim. He used to invest in mutual funds and the stock market, which I have no idea about what should I do?

Mahajan: The process to claim mutual funds and shares is much easier than banks. You can access all the data set of investment through your father’s PAN card. You can visit any mutual fund house irrespective of the fact if your father had invested through it. You need to submit your father’s details, death certificate, and relationship proof with your father to the MF house. Through this, you will be able to access all the information about his investments. Once you have that check who is the nominee. If there is no nominee then the ‘will’ will decide on who can claim those investments.