IEPF Claim — Recover Shares & Dividends from the IEPF Authority
Shares and dividends transferred to the Investor Education and Protection Fund are not confiscated. They are held in trust, and the rightful owner or their legal heirs can claim them back through Form IEPF-5.
Why your shares ended up with the IEPF
Under the Companies Act, 2013, any dividend that remains unpaid or unclaimed for seven consecutive years must be transferred by the company to the IEPF, and — importantly — the underlying shares are transferred as well. Companies publish the list of such shareholders and give notice before doing so, but that notice typically goes to an address the investor left decades ago.
The key point: transfer to the IEPF does not extinguish your ownership. It changes who is holding the asset and the procedure by which you get it back. There is no time limit on making a claim.
How an IEPF-5 claim actually works
- Establish the entitlement. We confirm from the company's IEPF disclosures exactly which shares and dividend amounts were transferred, in which year, and against which folio.
- Clean up the records first. If the name, PAN, KYC, bank details or holder status are not in order, we correct them before filing. Filing first and fixing later is the most common cause of a rejected claim.
- File Form IEPF-5 online on the IEPF Authority portal and generate the acknowledgement / SRN.
- Submit the physical claim package to the company's Nodal Officer — the printed form, an indemnity bond on stamp paper, an advance receipt, original certificates or the transaction statement, and supporting KYC and succession documents.
- Company verification. The Nodal Officer verifies the claim and sends a verification report to the IEPF Authority.
- Refund. On approval, the dividend is credited to your bank account and the shares are credited to your demat account by the Authority.
Timelines are set by the Authority and the company, not by us. In our experience a clean, well-documented claim commonly takes six to twelve months from filing to credit; cases involving death of the holder, missing certificates or disputed heirship take longer.
Why IEPF claims get rejected
- Name on the folio does not match the PAN or Aadhaar exactly
- Claimant is a legal heir but the transmission was never completed in company records first
- Indemnity bond or advance receipt executed on the wrong stamp value, or not properly witnessed
- Original certificates not surrendered, with no duplicate or Letter of Confirmation obtained
- Demat account not in the same name and order as the folio
- Multiple years or multiple companies bundled into one claim incorrectly
We audit for every one of these before anything is filed. If you have already had a claim returned, send us the rejection letter — it usually tells us precisely what needs fixing.
Documents usually required
Every Registrar has its own preferences, so treat this as an indicative list. We confirm the exact set for your company and case before you have anything notarised or stamped.
- Form IEPF-5 acknowledgement and SRN (we file this for you)
- Indemnity bond on stamp paper and advance receipt, duly signed and witnessed
- Original share certificates, or the Letter of Confirmation if certificates were lost
- PAN and Aadhaar of the claimant
- Client Master List of the demat account and a cancelled cheque
- For legal heirs: death certificate, succession/legal heir certificate or probate, and NOCs from other heirs
A note on originals. Never post original certificates or succession documents to anyone without a written acknowledgement and tracked courier. Where the process allows, we work from certified copies and only move originals at the point they are genuinely required.
IEPF Claim (Form IEPF-5) — FAQs
Is there a deadline to claim from the IEPF?
No. There is no limitation period for making a claim to the IEPF Authority. Shares and dividends transferred many years ago remain claimable by the rightful owner or their legal heirs.
Do I get the bonus shares and dividends declared after the transfer?
Yes. Corporate benefits accruing on the transferred shares — bonus issues, splits and subsequent dividends — also go to the IEPF and are released along with the principal claim.
Can more than one heir claim the same shares?
The Authority releases a claim to a single set of claimants supported by proper succession documentation. Where there are several heirs, the usual route is a joint claim, or NOCs from the other heirs in favour of one claimant. We help structure this so that it does not become a dispute.
Can I file IEPF-5 myself?
Yes, and the portal is free to use. If your holding is in your own name, your KYC is current and you hold the original certificates, you may well not need us. We are worth engaging when the holder has died, records do not match, certificates are missing, or a claim has already failed once.
Not sure whether you have anything to claim?
Send us the names and we will check the records for you — free, and with no obligation to proceed.