If something happened to you today, would your family know where your money is?
Moneycontrol asked the question every Indian investor should sit with. Nominees help — but finding every account is often the harder problem. Here’s why a financial inventory matters.
Featured coverage · Moneycontrol
If something happened to you today, would your family know where all your money is?
By Priyadarshini Maji on Moneycontrol
Imagine your family trying to settle your finances after you're gone. They know you invested over the years — but where? One mutual fund or six? Which bank held the fixed deposits? An old demat account, a forgotten insurance policy, an EPF balance they never knew about?
That is the question Moneycontrol recently put to Indian investors. As financial lives move across apps, AMCs, banks, and digital wallets, the hard part for families is often not the law — it is finding every asset in the first place.
A nominee is only part of the solution
Many people believe that adding nominees makes their family's job easy. Experts quoted in the piece are clear: a nominee is an important administrative step, but it is often misunderstood as a substitute for full planning. Nominations, a valid will, and proper documentation work together — they are not interchangeable.
The bigger challenge is finding the assets
A salary account from your first job. Mutual funds across different AMCs. Demat, insurance, EPF, NPS, a digital wallet, an investment you no longer track. If nobody knows these accounts exist, they can remain unclaimed for years while families spend months contacting institutions and chasing paperwork.
One document — a financial inventory
The simplest fix the article recommends is a financial inventory: a single snapshot of your financial life that lets family members locate and manage assets when required. Beyond investments, that map should include pending claims, tax refunds, locker details, and obligations where you are a co-applicant or guarantor.
That is exactly what Vashiyat is built for — a secure home for that inventory, with people you trust named, and access released on rules you set. Not a replacement for a will. A map so loved ones are not left on a scavenger hunt.
We spend years building wealth and very little time documenting it. A clear inventory won't change who inherits — but it can make sure your family actually knows where to look when it matters most.