What is an IEPF claim?
The Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) is managed by the IEPF Authority under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Under the Companies Act, 2013, a company must transfer dividends that stay unpaid for seven years to the IEPF, along with the shares on which dividends have gone unclaimed for seven consecutive years. Unclaimed matured deposits, debentures and refund money can also end up there.
None of this is forfeited. The money and shares still belong to the investor or their heirs, and an IEPF claim is the formal process to get them back.
How share recovery works in India
A claim moves between three parties: you, the company with its registrar (RTA), and the IEPF Authority.
| Stage | Who acts | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Tracing | You, with our team | Identify the company, folio, holder and what moved |
| Entitlement | Company and RTA | Check records; issue an entitlement letter where required |
| Filing | You | Submit Form IEPF-5 online and send signed documents to the company |
| Verification | Company | Sends its verification report to the IEPF Authority |
| Release | IEPF Authority | Credits shares to demat and dividends to your bank |
The procedure has been updated in recent years, so check the latest instructions on the IEPF and MCA websites before filing.
Who benefits from a recovery desk
If you have one company, clean records and your own name on the certificates, you may well manage the claim yourself. Help is most useful when there are several companies, physical certificates, a name or address mismatch, or a deceased holder whose heirs need transmission first. Old family holdings often involve all four at once.
Things to check before you start
- Names and signatures — the name on certificates, PAN and bank records should match, or you'll need affidavits.
- Mergers and name changes — an old holding may now sit with a successor company.
- Demat account — it must be in the claimant's name, exactly as on the claim.
- One claim per company — gather every folio and dividend for a company before filing.
- Copies of everything — keep the SRN and a full set of what you send.
Our team helps organise the paperwork and follow up, but the claim is always filed in your own name.
