Whenever we go on any social media platform be it YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or Quora, and type IEPF, then there are thousands of posts in which people are asking:

1. What is IEPF?
2. How is the IEPF claim taken?
3. Unclaimed Shares transfer to IEPF – How and Why?

If you are one of them who’s the same question why the Unclaimed Shares are transferred to IEPF then you have arrived at the right place. We will tell you what is IEPF and how/why the unclaimed shares get there?

1. What are IEPF and Unclaimed Shares/Dividend?

IEPF is Investor Education and Protection Funds has been established in 1999 under the company’s act 1956 for protection and awareness of investors’ interest.

In this act, it was told that if an investor has not claimed his dividend for 7 years, then it will be transferred to the IEPF so that it cannot be misused. The investor then can claim that shares/dividend or any interest accrued over the years from IEPF authority after following a due process.

So the company after 7 years have to compulsory transfer the shares/dividend or any interest accrued to IEPF authority.

2. How to get IEPF Claim?

To claim due from IEPF authority the investor needs to fill an IEPF claim form-5 which is available on the website. Below is the step by step procedure of the same.

1. Download the IEPF Form-5 from the IEPF website and fill in the details that have been asked and submit them online. Please fill all the required information carefully.
2. When you submit the form online, you will get an acknowledgment which you can save for future references.
3. Take a printout of the form-5 and acknowledgment.
4. Then this print out along with all the requisite different documents which are required on case to case basis must be arranged and are required to be sent to Nodal Officer for further processing.
5. The Nodal Officer after receiving the form completed in all aspect and after getting verification report from the company, a refund will be released by the IEPF authority.

3. How long it takes to get IEPF Claim?

Generally, it is a long process considering a huge number of cases is pending with IEPF authority. The documents which are required along with IEPF claim form-5 itself is a humongous task for ordinary investors especially in case shareholder is no longer in this world. Many times the form gets rejected for any of the reason which makes the situation more complex for an investor.

If the correct form is submitted along with all the documents than it generally takes 3 Months to 12 Months time to get IEPF claim settled.

Hope now you’ve got the answer of Unclaimed Shares transfer to IEPF – How and Why?

If not, then contact us now as we at ShareTransferZone are daily handling such IEPF cases and have the team of CAs, Lawyers, IEPF experts to help investors in settling their claim quickly without any hassle.

So if you are facing any issue in getting your claim settled then feel free to contact us.