What a case looks like

Example 1 — a bank account with no nominee

Hindu family · savings account, about ₹3 lakh · no will, no nominee

The situation

A man dies without a will. He leaves a widow, a son and a daughter. His main asset is a savings account with a public sector bank holding roughly ₹3 lakh. Nobody was registered as nominee. The branch has told the family three different things on three visits.

What the law says each person inherits

Under the Hindu Succession Act 1956, section 8, the estate passes to the Class I heirs — here the widow, the son and the daughter — and section 10 gives each one equal share. Son and daughter take exactly the same.

• Widow — 1/3
• Son — 1/3
• Daughter — 1/3

What the bank will ask for

With no nominee and a balance under the bank’s internal limit, this is settled without any court. The pack contains:

• Death certificate
• The bank’s claim form for a deceased depositor
• Affidavit of heirship, naming all three heirs and their shares
• No-objection letters from the heirs who are not the claimant
• Indemnity bond on stamp paper
• Claimant’s PAN and address proof

Outcome

No court, no advocate. One complete submission, typically settled in a few weeks. The commonest reason this kind of claim comes back is a missing NOC — which is why the pack insists every heir is listed.

Example 2 — a mother’s insurance and shares

Hindu family · life insurance with a nominee, plus demat shares · no will

The situation

A woman dies without a will, survived by her husband, a son and a daughter. She held a life insurance policy on which her husband was the nominee, and a demat account of listed shares with no nomination.

What the law says each person inherits

For a Hindu woman, section 15(1)(a) puts her sons, daughters and husband first, and section 16 has them take equally:

• Husband — 1/3
• Son — 1/3
• Daughter — 1/3

One thing the pack flags for the reviewer: section 15(2) sends property a woman inherited from her parents or husband back to that side of the family if she leaves no children. She does leave children here, so the split above stands — but the pack records the provenance of each asset, because a case where it matters is easy to miss.

Two assets, two very different routes

• The insurance policy. Because the husband was named as nominee, this is the quick route: death claim form, original policy, the nominee’s KYC, a cancelled cheque. Insurance is one of the narrow cases where a nominee who is a spouse, parent or child takes the money beneficially, not merely as a trustee.
• The demat shares. No nomination, so this goes by transmission: the depository’s transmission request form, an affidavit of heirship, NOCs from the other two heirs, and an indemnity bond.

Outcome

No court for either asset. The pack is prepared as two parallel submissions, because there is nothing to gain by waiting for one before starting the other.

Example 3 — a sister, old shares, and the honest answer

Hindu family · unmarried woman · fixed deposit of about ₹12 lakh, plus shares transferred to the IEPF

The situation

An unmarried woman dies without a will. Both her parents are alive. She leaves a fixed deposit of roughly ₹12 lakh with no nominee, and a small parcel of shares bought decades ago that were transferred to the Investor Education and Protection Fund after years of unclaimed dividends. Her brother is handling the paperwork.

What the law says

The brother is not first in line. For a Hindu woman with no children and no husband, section 15(1)(c) gives the estate to her mother and father. The brother would inherit only if neither parent survived. So the claimants here are the parents, and the brother acts on their behalf:

• Mother — 1/2
• Father — 1/2

This is exactly the kind of assumption the free check corrects before anyone files the wrong claim. See our guide on claiming a sister’s inheritance.

Two assets — one we handle, one that needs an advocate

• The IEPF shares. Recoverable, and worth it. Form IEPF-5 is filed online, then a physical pack goes to the company’s nodal officer: the acknowledgement, an indemnity bond, an advance receipt, the death certificate, proof of the parents’ entitlement, and a cancelled cheque. Slow — the company’s entitlement letter is the step families stall on — but no court.
• The ₹12 lakh fixed deposit. No nominee and a balance well above the bank’s internal limit. The bank will insist on a succession certificate— a civil court application under the Indian Succession Act, sections 370 to 390. That needs an advocate, and we do not pretend otherwise.

Outcome

The free check tells the family this before they pay. We prepare everything around the court application — the IEPF pack, the affidavits, the heirship record — and can introduce them to an advocate for the certificate itself. Saying “this part needs a lawyer” at the start is the whole reason the check is free.

Run your own case through the same rules

The shares above were computed by the same rules engine and the document lists drawn from the same tables we use for every paid pack. The free check applies them to your family and your accounts, in about two minutes.