Every year, several crores of rupees in mutual fund investments go unclaimed, often due to a change in address, phone numbers, bank accounts or when people forget about their old portfolios.
During 2024-25, unclaimed money in mutual funds surged nearly 21% year-over-year (YoY) to ₹3,452 crore from ₹2,862 crore a year ago, according to SEBI’s annual report.
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) have been asking investors to check their unclaimed folios through the AMC’s website or Mutual Fund Investment Tracing and Retrieval Assistant (MITRA) platform and claim them accordingly.
How to check if you have any unclaimed money?
To check if you have any unclaimed funds:
- Check on your AMC’s website
- Check the website of the Registrar & Transfer Agent (RTA)
- Log in to MF Central at www.mfcentral.com with your user ID, password or OTP
- Check your Consolidated Account Statements (CAS) to see if you have an unpaid/unclaimed amount
- Search on MITRA
Mutual funds also send periodic reminders to investors about the unclaimed amount.
How to claim an unclaimed amount?
Once you have checked if you have an unclaimed amount, you can follow these steps to claim your money:
- Download the form available on AMC’s website.
- Fill the form and submit it to the AMC/RTA’s office.
- After verification, the unclaimed amount will be transferred to you from the Unclaimed Dividend and Redemption Scheme (UDRS), along with the appreciation.
Here are some important Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) regarding unclaimed mutual funds:
What is an unclaimed amount?
An AMC returns money to an investor once they redeem their units, or when they need to pay maturity proceeds or dividends. These payments are transferred into the investor’s bank account electronically or through a physical cheque, which is dispatched to the registered address of the investor as per available records.
When such an amount is issued by a mutual fund, but isn’t credited to the bank account of the investor due to reasons such as a change in bank account, closure of the account, incomplete bank records, a cheque not received or encashed by the investor, address not updated by the investor, etc., the amount is treated as unclaimed.
The unclaimed amounts that couldn’t be paid to the investor due to incomplete KYC are then credited to the unclaimed scheme on the date of payment.
What is the unclaimed scheme?
The Unclaimed Dividend and Redemption Scheme (UDRS) is a specific investment plan by Indian mutual funds (AMCs) through which the unclaimed funds of the investors (dividends, redemption proceeds, maturity proceeds) are transferred into liquid/money market funds for returns.
“Mutual Funds are permitted to invest the unclaimed amounts in call money market, money market instruments or in a separate plan of Overnight scheme/Liquid scheme/Money Market Mutual Funds, which generally carry much reduced capital risk and also provide returns. The separate plan specifically floated by Mutual Funds for deployment of unclaimed amounts is known as Unclaimed Dividend/Redemption Scheme (UDRS),” Finance Ministry says in a booklet titled ‘Your Money, Your Right’.
If the investor claims their money within 3 years from the date of unit creation, the original amount, along with appreciation, is paid to investors. After 3 years, the money is sent to an investor education fund.
What is MITRA, and how does it help investors?
MITRA is a platform that helps investors trace inactive and unclaimed mutual fund investments.
“An inactive folio is where no investor-initiated transaction (financial or non-financial) has taken place in the last 10 years, but unit balance is available in the folio,” as per the Finance Ministry’s ‘Your Money, Your Right’ booklet.
Investors can access MITRA on the MF Central website. Through MITRA, they can search for their unclaimed or inactive folios by filling in various search parameters.
“The mutual fund investment tracing and retrieval assistant (MITRA) has been launched to provide investors with a searchable database of inactive and unclaimed mutual fund folios at an industry level, thereby empowering them in various aspects,” SEBI said in its annual report.
How are payouts made?
The payment from the unclaimed scheme is treated similarly to redemption. This means that the applicable Net Asset Value (NAV) is applied based on the date and time of receipt of the form.
The payouts are made within 2-5 days.
According to the ‘Your Money, Your Right’ booklet:
For payments released within 3 years, the redemption is processed from the Unclaimed Dividend and Redemption Scheme (UDRS) as per the applicable NAV of the Unclaimed scheme, including the appreciation received by the scheme.
For payments released after 3 years, appreciation is passed on to the investor education fund, and redemption is processed based on the value as at the end of 3 years from the date of unit creation in the unclaimed scheme.
What if an investor doesn’t receive the unclaimed money?
If an investor doesn’t receive their unclaimed money or a rejection communication within 7 working days of filling in and submitting the form, he/she can contact the AMC or the RTA’s office or the AMC’s contact centre and submit a complaint.
In case their issue isn’t resolved through the AMC or RTA, they can escalate the matter to SEBI’s SCORES portal.
How can investors avoid their money becoming unclaimed?
Investors are advised to regularly update their records, such as PAN/KYC, address and bank account details. Additionally, whenever they apply for redemption of units, they should check their bank account for the credit transaction. If the amount is not received within 3 working days or through a cheque within 5-7 working days, investors should contact their AMC/RTA.
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