What If My Account Do Not Have A Nomination:

This one was a real incident.Mr X was not so fortunate and died in an accident,,leaving  behind a spouse.His earnings were handsome and good investmets all over bank fixed deposits,mutual funds and insurance policies.When his spouse went to bank to claim the amount lying in saving account and fixed deposits,she was shocked when bank told her that account do not have a nomination and she will not get any claim until she complete the procedure for account succession.It was really frustrating as we, common man generally do not have ideas of procedures to follow.But in general,now she has to do the following procedure.

1.Indemnity bond:

Bank will ask nominee to sign indemnity bond on a stamp paper of min Rs.100 which states that If in future any other person claims nomination and proves true then nominee will have to return all money claimed.This is the main clause and there  may be other clauses also changing fron bank to bank.This is to be counter signed by two witnesses at least.Sometimes bank also demand indemnity bond even if nominee is appointed for account.

2.Affidavit Signed Before Authorised official:

Affidavit need to be signed before the official, at least rank of tehsildar on the stamp paper of at least Rs.100.Documents like death certificate of deceased person,identity proof of the nominee are required.This affidavit is counter signed by all legal heirs and all should be personally  present before the official.

3.Court Order:

If amount to be claimed is higher,then bank insists on court order.This process will have lawer expenses,advertisement expenses etc and at least require 6-8 months.Once court pass the order then nominee need to communicate it with the bank and then bank will take a decision.

RBI guidelines says that such cases needs to be handled with minimum documentation,but bank will not give you claim till complete procedure is done.Some bank says ,,but common experience is that they do not have a relation beyond banking..so if you do not have made nomination,it should be done on priority basis,isn’t it?