Have your shares or dividends been transferred to the IEPF (Investor Education and Protection Fund)? Don’t worry. Deepam Finvest will help you all the way through the claim procedure to help you recover what is legally yours.
Very few investors know that if shares and dividends remain unclaimed for seven years, then the company transfers such dividends & the underlying shares to the IEPF. But the good news is that you can get them back. Here’s how.
Step-by-Step Process of IEPF Claim
1. Get the “Letter of Entitlement” from the Company
In the first step, the shareholders have to register their KYC by submitting Forms ISR-1, ISR-2, ISR-4, and SH-13, along with supporting documents. These forms are to be sent to the investor service department of the company or to the registrar by courier.
On verification, the company issues a Letter of Entitlement , which serves as a confirmation that the claimant is entitled to the shares & dividends.
2. File IEPF Claim Online – Form IEPF-5
Next, you need to create a User ID on the IEPF Portal and fill in the application of Form IEPF-5 online. Upload the scanned copies of the requisite documents. After submission of the claim, a Service Request Number (SRN) is generated as an acknowledgement.
3. Send Physical Documents to the Company
Take the printout of the IEPF-5 Form along with the SRN Acknowledgement. These will have to be signed and couriered to the company concerned, along with all supporting documents, at the earliest. It is an important part of the verification procedure.
4. Verification by the Company
The company shall evaluate your claim and authenticate your documents. Having found the proceedings in order, the company would submit an e-Verification Report to the IEPF prior to the expiry of 30 days from SRN generation.
5. Final Check by IEPF Authority
Thereafter, the claim shall again be reviewed by IEPF. If found fit, an approval email will be sent by IEPF to the shareholder and the shares shall be credited to the Demat Account, and unclaimed dividends shall stand credited to your bank account. Otherwise, the rejection of the claim can also take place, so the accuracy of the documents is very important.
Current Timeline for IEPF Approvals
As of July 2025, the IEPF authority takes approximately 21 months from the date of SRN generation to approve the claims. As an illustration, investors who had filed their IEPF-5 Form during October 2023 are now being sent the approval emails. After approval, there may be another 45-60 days for the release of shares and dividends.
Shareholders should not get unduly anxious or worried if there is no communication from IEPF even after 12-15 months of IEPF-5 filing. They should constantly monitor their email id, including the Spam folder, so as not to miss any approval / rejection email sent by IEPF.
Need Help? Deepam Finvest Is Here
Claim shares and dividend from IEPF seems to be very long and frequently confusing. Even a little error can make the process of recovering your investments drag on longer. We at Deepam Finvest make the entire process easy for the client-from the right collection of documents to the status of his claim until shares and dividends are returned.
Do not let your hard-earned savings lie there unclaimed. Let our experts take the stress out of this for you.
Contact Deepam Finvest today and take the first step to recover your unclaimed shares and dividends from IEPF.
