How to transfer mutual fund units of a deceased person to the nominee or legal heir or another joint holder?

How to transfer mutual fund units of a deceased person to the nominee or legal heir or another joint holderTransfer mutual funds of a deceased to nominee/legal heir/another joint holder


One would save money and invest in mutual fund schemes for their better life or for the family members. Everything goes smooth till such time investor is alive. But what happens to mutual funds when such an investor die? There are various scenarios where mutual fund units need to be transferred from a deceased person to the nominee or to another joint holder or to legal heirs. This is a tedious process. However, certain steps by investors when they are alive help their family members to ease the process in claiming such mutual fund units. How to transfer mutual fund units of a deceased person to the nominee or legal heir or another joint holder?

Also Read: Top 15 Mutual Funds to invest in 2021

What is a nomination in mutual funds?

Nomination in mutual funds is where a mutual fund holder would put up a name to whom such mutual fund units needs to be transferred post their death. The person to whom such mutual funds to be transferred is called nominee. Such nominee could be a family member or an outsider.

Investors should select a nominee (spouse or children) for every mutual fund scheme while they are investing. In case such nomination is not done when a lump sum is invested or when a SIP is created, they can always do that by providing a nomination request form to the mutual fund house. This extra step would help such nominee to claim the mutual fund units with simpler process.

Various scenarios that arise for transfer of mutual fund units

There are three scenarios that would arise to transfer of mutual fund units of a deceased person:

Scenario-1 – In case these mutual fund units have joint holders, then post the death of the investor (one or more of the joint holders), such mutual fund units would be transferred to other joint holders.

Scenario-2 – In case these mutual funds are held only as single holder, then post the death of an investor, such mutual fund units would be transferred to the registered nominee (if nominated).

Scenario-3 – In case MF units held in single holder and a nominee is not registered, then legal heirs can claim the mutual fund units.

How to transfer mutual fund units of a deceased person to another joint holder?

The documentation may differ slightly between different fund houses. Here are the documents that are required.

1) One need to fill a transmission request form – Form T2 for transmission of mutual fund units to the surviving unit holders.

2) Need an original death certificate of the deceased mutual fund unit holder. In case such original cannot be submitted (which is common as one need to produce it various places to claim investments) a photocopy of death certificate duly attested by a Notary Public or a Gazetted Officer.

3) A PAN card copy of the surviving joint holders in case these are not submitted to the mutual fund house earlier.

4) Cancelled cheque of the new first unit holder. Such cheque should clearly have a claimant’s name. One can also submit a recent bank statement that is not more than 3 months old of the new first unit holder.

5) KYC acknowledgment / KYC Form of the existing surviving unit holder, if not KYC compliant.

The above documentation is complete for this scenario. Once the documents are submitted to the mutual fund house, they would transfer the mutual fund units from a deceased person to other joint holders within 30 days of submission of documents. If there are multiple mutual fun houses, one need to submit separate requests.

There could be an additional scenario where there is death of 2nd or 3rd unit holder or other joint holders. In such case, the first unit holder can submit below documents and remove their names.

1) Fill Form T1 which is a request form, from the surviving unit holder requesting  deletion of name of deceased 2nd or 3rd unit holder.

2) Death certificate in original or copy attested by a Notary Public or a Gazetted Officer.

3) Fresh bank mandate form along with a cancelled cheque of the new bank account (only if there is a change in existing bank mandate)

4) Fresh nomination form to be filled in case there was no nomination earlier or a change in existing nomination.

5) KYC acknowledgment or New KYC Form of the surviving unit holder, if required.

Once these documents are submitted to the mutual fund house (s), they would delete the names of deceased unit holder within 30 days.

How to transfer mutual fund units of a deceased person to the nominee?

Let us talk about scenario-2 where the mutual fund units need to be transferred from a deceased person to registered nominee. Here are the documents required.

1) One needs to fill a transmission request form – Form T3 for transmission of mutual fund units to the registered nominee.

2) Need an original death certificate of the deceased person or a photocopy of death certificate duly attested by a Notary Public or a Gazetted Officer.

3) PAN card copy of the nominee.

4) Cancelled cheque of the nominee. Such cheque should clearly have a nominee name. Nominee can also submit a recent bank statement that is not more than 3 months old.

5) KYC acknowledgment / KYC Form of the nominee, if not KYC compliant.

6) If the MF unit value is up to 2 lakh, the mutual fund house can ask for a nominee’s signature attested by the bank manager as per Annexure-IA. In case the nominee is a minor, signature of the guardian needs to be attested.

7) If the MF unit value is more than 2 lakh, the mutual fund house would ask for the signature of the nominee to be attested by a notary public or a Judicial Magistrate First Class in the space provided for signature  attestation in the TRF itself below the signature of the claimant.

In case the nominee is a minor, below additional documents required.

1) Birth certificate of minor

2) PAN card of the guardian

Once these documents are submitted to the mutual fund house (s), they would transfer the mutual fund units to nominee within 30 days.

Also Read: 5 Midcap mutual funds with 1 year return of 50%

How to transfer mutual fund units of a deceased person to legal heirs (no registered nominee)?

This is scenario-3 where there is no registered nominee and legal heirs want claim the mutual fund units. This is a little painful process.

1) All the documents indicated above – Form T3 + copy of death certificate duly attested by notary public/gazette officer, PAN card of claimant, cancelled cheque of claimant etc.,

2) Appropriate document evidencing relationship of the claimant with the deceased unit holder.

3) Indemnity Bond as per Annexure-II to be furnished by legal heirs for transmission of units without production of legal representation.

Provided that in case the legal heir/claimant is submitting the Succession Certificate or Probate of Will or Letter of Administration wherein the claimant is named as a beneficiary, an affidavit as per Annexure-III from such legal heir/claimant(s) alone would be sufficient; i.e., Indemnity bond is not required.

4) Individual affidavits to be given by each legal heir as per Annexure-III

5) NOC from other legal heirs as per Annexure – IV, where ever applicable.

Once these documents are submitted to the mutual fund house (s), they would delete the names of deceased unit holder within 30 days.

If you observe, registering nominee in mutual funds would save a lot of time in documentation process when they are claiming these MF units.

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6 comments

  1. Dear Sir ,

    You have given a very good clerification about to transfer MF units of deceased person to nominee.
    Sir please guide us to get all investment details of deceased person in various MF schemes by nominee/legel heirs.
    With Thanks & Regards

    1. Hello Navneet, Thanks for your comments. We have provided this in detail earlier, however is the quick summary
      Please go to https://new.camsonline.com/Home
      Click on ‘Statement’
      Select Consolidated view of mutual fund holdings – CAMS+Karvy+FTAMIL+SBFS
      Please provide your registered email address, and a password (this need not be your email ID’s password; this is just a password that CAMS will use to encrypt the file that they will be sending to you)

      You can get the details of the deceased person in single statement

  2. Very nice and indeed a detailed note for different scenarios on how to deal with succession issue in case of mf investment.
    Thank you very much.

  3. Many of us are stuck with Karvy, whose last date was 31st dec.20. But he didn’t transfer the shares to new demat. What will customers do now?

    1. Hello Krish, As per my knowledge Karvy cannot continue as stock broker, but as an investor you can transfer the shares from Karvy to other stock brokers. Pls reach out to Karvy and fill necessary forms and move your shares to new demat account

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