DON'T LEAVE YOUR FAMILY IN LURCH

CASE STUDY

PLEASE READ THIS CASE STUDY VERY CAREFULLY -  Life lessons shared   on the Web---

           We always  believe we will live forever. Bad things always happen to others. Only when things hit us bang on your head you realise... Life is so unpredictable.... My husband was an IT guy ...all techie...And I am a chartered accountant...Awesome  combination you may think...

             Techie guy so everything is on his laptop ...his to do list... his e-bill and his bank statements in his email...  He even maintained a folder which said IMPWDS...wherein he stored all login id and passwords for all his online accounts...And even his laptop had a password ... Techie guy so all the passwords were alpha-numeric with a special character not an easy one to crack ...Office policy said passwords needed to be changed every 30 days...So every time I accessed his laptop I would realise it's a new password again... I would simply opt for asking him 'What's the latest password' instead of taking the strain to memorise it.

            You may think me being a Chartered Accountant would means everything is documented and filed properly... Alas many of my chartered accountant friends would agree that the precision we follow with our office documents and papers do not flow in to day to day home life...At office you have be epitome of Reliability I Competent I Diligent etc but... at home front there is always a tomorrow ... One fine morning my hubby expired in a bike accident on his way home from office. His laptop with all his data crashed...everything on his hard disk wiped off  No folder of IMPWDS to refer back to... But that was just the beginning... I realised I had a lot to learn... 9 years married, no kids, just the two of µs to fall back on, but now I stood all alone and lost.

          Being a chartered accountant helped in more ways than one but it was not enough... I needed help...His saving bank accounts, his salary bank accounts had no nomine...On his insurance his mom was the nominee and it was almost 2 years back she had expired ... but this was just a start .... I didn't know the password to his email account where all his e-bill came ...I didn't know •which expenses he paid by standing instructions...

    The house we bought with all the excitement...on a loan...thought with our joint salary we could afford the EMl... when the home loans guys suggested insurance on the loan...we decided the instead of paying the premium the difference in the EMI on account of the insurance could be used pay towards prepayment of the loan and .get the tenure down...We never thought what we would do if we have to live on a single salary. So now there was huge EMI to look into  I realised I was in for a long haul...  Road accident case,  so everywhere I needed a Death certificate, FIR report, Post Mortem report. For everything there were forms running into pages, indemnity bonds, notary...surety to stand        up       for        you...No       objections       certificates        from        your        co-heirs.. I learnt other than your house, your land ... your car, your bike are also your property ... So what if you are the joint owner of the flat...you don't become the owner just because your hubby is no more... So what if your hubby expired in the bike accident...and you are the nominee but if the bike is in a repairable condition ...you have to get the bike transferred in your name to claim the insurance...And that was again not easy... the bike or car cannot be transferred in your name without going through a set of legal documents ... Getting a Succession Certificate is another battle all together ...

          Then came the time you realise now you have to start changing all the bills, assets in your name...Your gas connection, electricity meter, your own house, your car, your investments and all sundries... And then change ati the nominations where your own investments are concerned...And again a start of a new set of paperwork...

             To say I was shaken...my whole life had just turned upside down was an understatement. ..You realise you don't have time to mourn and grieve for the person with whom you spent the best years of your life...because you are busy sorting all the paper work ... I realised then how much I took life for granted...! thought being a chartered accountant I am undergoing so many difficulties...what would have happened to someone who was house maker who wouldn't understand this legal hotchpotch...

             A sweet friend then told me dear this was not an end...you have no kids...your assets will be for all who stand to claim...after my hubby's sudden death...I realised it was time I took life more seriously... Inow needed to make a Will... Iwould have laughed a few months back if he had asked me to make one ...But now life had taken a twist. ..

Lessons learnt this hard way were meant to be shared...After all why should the people whom we love the most suffer after we are no more...Sorting some paperwork before we go will at least ease some of their grief ...

1.            Check all your nominations... Bank Accounts, Fixed Deposits, NSC, Bank Lockers Demat Accounts,Insurance (Life,Bike or Car er Property}, investments, PPF etc.

2.            Passwords.... We  have  passwords  for  practically   everything   What   happens   when your next of kin cannot access any of these simply because they do not know your password... Put it down on a paper...

3.            Investments... Every year for tax purpose we do investments... Do we maintain an excel sheet about it... If so is it on the same laptop of which the password you had not shared... Where are those physical investments hard copy...

4.            Will... Make a Will...t know you will smile even I would...had I not gone through all what Idid...lt would have made my life lot easier...a lot less paperwork...I wouldn't have had to provide an indemnity bond, get it notarised, ask surety to stand up, no objections certificates from others...

.5.            Liabilities... When you take a loan say for your house or car ...Check out on all the what ifs...what  if I am not there tomorrow ...what if I lose my job ...Will the EMI still be within my range...lf not get an insurance on the loan...The people left behind will not have to worry on something as basic as their own  house...

         My battles have just begun...But let us at least try and make few changes so that our loved ones would not suffer after we go...We do not know what will happen in the future...But as the Scout motto goes: Be prepared!!Learn from my experience and prepare today for the unexpected. A little effort now will save your loved ones a lot of trouble later.

THERE IS STILL TIME TODAY WITH YOU TAKE ACTIONS IMMEDIATELY, THERE IS ENOUGH MATERIAL AVAILABLE UNDER THE VETERAN'S LIBRARY HERE FOR YOU TO DRW OUT YOUR DOCUMENTS.




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YOUR COMMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS ON THIS POST
     
     
Dear Veterans,

1. We at Signals-Family Portal are ordinary people in various matters concerning serving and Retired Govt Personnel, as such, do heavily bank upon inputs from our readers. Kindly do add, comment and give your observations on this or any other post aimed at improving the posted contents for the benefit of the veterans community.
2. Kindly post these under the comments, we will much appreciate your contribution in this regard.
3. In order to avoid spam and unwarranted or mischievous posts, only such entries will get published where the Person has given his RANK, NAME @ EMAIL ID at the end of his/her text.
4. We will do our best to post our response as quickly as possible after getting the facts vetted from offrs, JCOs and men who are more knowledgeable on particular subject.
With best wishes

Sincerely yours,

Brig Narinder Dhand (Veteran)


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NOMINEE IN BANK ACCTS - LEGAL STATUS

LEGAL ISSUES -WILL YOUR NOMINEE GET THE MONEY ON YOUR DEATH -- HE/SHE WILL NOT MOST PROBABLY

       Did you think that your nominee is the person, who will get all the money

legally from your Life Insurance Policy and Mutual funds investments? Ha!

That is exactly what you’d think if you aren’t aware of the legal aspects.

We assume a lot of things which sounds like they’re obvious, but are not

true from the legal point of view. Today, we’ll concentrate on nominations

in financial products.

       For whom are we earning? For whom are we investing? Who, do we want

to leave all our wealth to, in case something happens to us? It might be

your children, your spouse, parents, siblings etc., or just a subset of these.

You also might want to exclude some people from your list fo

beneficiaries! So you think you will nominate person X in your Insurance

policy, and when you are dead and gone, all the money goes to person

X and he/she becomes the sole owner? You’re wrong, dude ! It doesn’t

work that way. Let’s see how it actually does!

What is a nominee?

          According to law, a nominee is a trustee not the owner of the assets. In

other words, he is only a caretaker of your assets. The nominee will only

hold your money/asset as a trustee and will be legally bound to transfer it

to the legal heirs.

For most investments, a legal heir is entitled to the

deceased’s assets. For instance, Section 39 of the Insurance Act says the

appointed nominee will be paid, though he may not be the legal heir. The

nominee, in turn, is supposed to hold the proceeds in trust and the legal

heir can claim the money.

           A legal heir will be the one whose is mentioned in the will. However, if a

will is not made, then the legal heirs of the assets are decided according

to the succession laws, where the structure is predefined on who gets how

much. For example, if a man during his lifetime executes a will. In the will,

he mentions his wife and children as legal heirs, then after his death, his

wife and children are the legal owners of his assets. It is essential that one

needs to execute a will. It is the ultimate source of truth and replaces the

succession law. Nominee can also be one of the legal heirs.

           Important. Mention the Full Name, Address, age, relationship to yourself

of the nominee. Do not write the nomination in favour of “wife” and

“children” as a class. Give their specific names and particulars existing at

that moment. If the nominee is a minor, appoint a person who is a major

as an appointee giving his full name, age, address and relationship to the

nominee.

Why is the concept of nominee?

          So you might be wondering, if the nominee does not become the sole

owner, why does such a concept of “nominee” exist at all? It’s pretty

simple. When you die, you want to make sure that the Insurance

company, Mutual fund or your shares should at least get out of the

companies and go to someone you trust, and who can further help, in

process of passing it to your legal heirs.

              Otherwise, if a person dies and hasn’t nominated anyone, your legal heirs

will have to go through the process of producing all kind of certificates like

death certificates, proof of relation etc., not to mention that the whole

process is really cumbersome! (For each legal entity! The insurance

company, the mutual funds, for the shares, for the real estate..) . So, to

simplify, if a nominee exists, these hassles don’t happen, since the

company is bound to transfer all your money or assets to the nominee.The

company the goes out of scene & then, it’s between nominee and legal

heirs.

Example of Nomination

             Ajay was 58 years old who died recently in an accident. As his children

were settled, he wanted to make sure that his wife is the sole owner of all

the monetary assets. This includes his insurance policy and mutual funds.

So during his lifetime, he nominated his wife as a nominee in his term

insurance policy and mutual funds investments. However, after Ajay’s

death things didn’t turn up the way he wanted. The reason being Ajay did

not leave a will. Though his wife was the nominee in all his movable assets,

as per the law, his wife, along with children, were the legal heirs and all of

them had equal right to Ajay’s assets.

           One simple step which could have saved the situation 2qw that Ajay

should have made a will which clearly stated that only his wife was

entitled to get all the money and not his children.

IMPLICATIONS OF NOMINATION ARE DIFFERENT FOR EACH CATEGORY !!

Nomination in Life Insurance

              A policy holder can appoint multiple nominees and can also specify their

shares in the policy proceeds. Nomination in life insurance has one

limitation, as insurance policies are bought to secure your financial

dependents, your first choice of nominee has to be your family members.

In case you want to nominate a non-family member like a friend or third

party, you will have to show/PROVE the insurance company that there is

some insurable interest for the person. This happens because of a Clause

called PRINCIPAL OF INSURABLE INTEREST in insurance. Note that provision

of nomination in life insurance is related to Section 39 of the Insurance

Act. Note that as per LIC website

             Nomination is a right conferred on the holder of a Policy of Life Assurance

on his own life to appoint a person/s to receive policy moneys in the event

of the policy becoming a claim by the assured’s death. The Nominee

does not get any other benefit except to receive the policy moneys on

the death of the Life Assured. A nomination may be changed or

cancelled by the life assured whenever he likes without the consent of the

Nominee.

               Make sure, you have a nominee for your policy for easy settlement of the

claim, if you do not have any nominee mentioned in the policy, it can turn

out to be a disaster for your dependents to get a claim.

Nomination in Mutual funds

              In case of mutual funds, you can nominate up to three people, who can

be registered at the time of purchasing the units. While filling in the

application form, there is a provision to fill in the nomination details. Even

a minor can be a nominee, provided the guardian is specified in the

nomination form. You can also change nomination later by filling up a

form which is available on the mutual fund company website. Nomination

in mutual funds is at folio level and all units in the folio will be transferred to

the nominee(s). If an investor makes a further investment in the same folio,

the nomination is applicable to the new units also. A non-resident Indian

can be a nominee, subject to the exchange control regulations in force

from time to time.

Nomination in Shares

            Quiz for you . Now you know what a nominee means and who actually

gets the money. So if there is a husband H, with wife W and nephew N,

and he has nominated his nephew N to be the nominee of his shares in

demat account, who will have the legal right to own the shares after

husband’s death? If you answer is wife, you are wrong in this case! In case

of stocks, it does not work the usual way, if a will does not exist.

In the verdict, Justice Roshan Dalvi struck down a petition filed by Harsha

Nitin Kokate, who was seeking permission to sell some shares held by her

late husband. The Court noted that as she was not the nominee, she had

no ownership rights over the shares. Ms Kokate’s lawyer had argued that

as she was the heir of her husband who had died intestate (without a will),

she should have ownership rights of the shares, and be able to do

anything with them as she wished. In this case, Ms Kokate’s husband had

nominated his nephew in favour of the shares. Justice Dalvi however

noted that under the provisions of the Companies Act and the

             Depositories Act, Acts which govern the transfer of shares, the role of a

nominee was different.“A reading of Section 109(A) of the Companies Act

and 9.11 of the Depositories Act makes it abundantly clear that the intent

of the nomination is to vest the property in the shares which includes the

ownership rights there under in the nominee upon nomination validly

made as per the procedure prescribed, as has been done in this case.”

It means that if you have not written a will, anyone who has been

nominated by you for your shares will be the ultimate owner of those

stocks, The succession laws on inheritance will not be applicable but in

case, you have made a will, that will be the source of truth.

Nomination in PPF

                 Let me give you some shock first. If you have Rs 10 lakh in your public

provident fund (PPF) account and you have not nominated anyone for

your PPF account, your legal heirs will get maximum of Rs1 lakh only! Yes,

it’s so important to have a nominee, now you get it. You can nominate

one or more persons as nominee in PPF. Form ‘F’ can be used to change or

cancel a nomination for PPF. Also note that you cannot nominate anyone

if you open an account for a minor.

Nomination in Saving/Current/FD/RD Account in Banks

FD’s also come with nomination facility. While opening a new account,

there is a column for nomination in the same form and you should fill it.

You can nominate two persons with first and second option. Note that in

case you have not done any nomination till now, you should request Form

No DA-1 from your Bank which is used to assign a nominee in future.

(Examples of ICICI Bank , HDFC Bank , Canara Bank) . In the same way to

change/cancel the nomination you need to fill up Form no DA-2. Read

about Corporate Fixed Deposits

               As per a famous case, A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha in

an order said that the money lying deposited in the account of the

original depositor should be distributed among the claimants in

accordance with the Succession Act of the respective community and

the nominee cannot claim any absolute right over it.

Section 45ZA(2)(Banking Regulation Act) merely put the nominee in the

shoes of the depositor after his death and clothes him with the exclusive

right to receive the money lying in the account. It gives him all the rights of

the depositors so far as the depositors’s account is concerned. But it by no

stretch of imagination make the nominee the owner of the money lying.

MAKE A WILL ! DO YOUR NEXT KIN A HUGE FAVOUR BY NOT LEAVING THEM IN LEARCH!

MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND THE IMPLICATIONS OF LAWS

INFORM EVERY ONE WHOM YOU FEEL MUST TAKE ACTION NOW.

*********************************************** YOUR COMMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS ON THIS POST      Dear Veterans, 1. We at Signals-Family Portal are ordinary people in various matters concerning serving and Retired Govt Personnel, as such, do heavily bank upon inputs from our readers. Kindly do add, comment and give your observations on this or any other post aimed at improving the posted contents for the benefit of the veterans community. 2. Kindly post these under the comments, we will much appreciate your contribution in this regard. 3. In order to avoid spam and unwarranted or mischievous posts, only such entries will get published where the Person has given his RANK, NAME @ EMAIL ID at the end of his/her text. 4. We will do our best to post our response as quickly as possible after getting the facts vetted from offrs, JCOs and men who are more knowledgeable on particular subject. With best wishes                                                                                                                                     Sincerely yours,                                                                                                                    Brig Narinder Dhand (Veteran)                                                 ********************************************

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