Going Digital: From Notebooks to an Application to Inform Your Family About Your Investments In order to ensure easy and quick availability of investments to your family members when they require it, you need a reliable and secure digital platform

According to the Finance Minister of India, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman (Budget 2019), there are Unclaimed deposits in Banks rise by 27per cent to INR 14,578 Cr. in 2018. There is also unclaimed money estimated from the insurance sector is about INR 15,167 Cr. unclaimed money in 2018.

This is because the family members of the deceased cannot establish the legitimacy of claims. A part of the reason why kin is unable to make these withdrawals lies in the fact that they are not aware of the claims at all. Their deceased family member left them no information on family finances.

Then, there are cases where the breadwinner of the family passes away or has to be hospitalized for some reason, and the responsibility of the money matters suddenly falls on the shoulders of his kins. There are bills to be paid, bank accounts to be operated, and medical/insurance claims to be made. The family members would at the most know the names of banks or insurance companies where their money lies, but beyond that, they have no piece of information on account number, policy number, amount, etc.

In most families, the decision-maker of the house single-handedly manages all things related to investments. He keeps the records in a hardcover notebook/diary, printouts or spreadsheets. The trouble arises when his kins do not know how to track or access these details. They may either have absolutely no idea about the existence of family investments or may have lost/misplaced the notebook, diary or papers that contained the details. They may not know how to operate the computer to access the spreadsheet. They may not know the password if the spreadsheet is password protected.

The onus of making the family members aware of the investments lies on your shoulder. In order to ensure easy and quick availability of investments to your family members when they require it, you need a reliable and secure digital platform to store, protect and share investment information.

A mobile investment app is the right one-stop solution to your problem. It acts as a virtual vault which allows you to store all types of investment details such as bank accounts, insurance policies and other assets as well as transmit the data to your kin as and when the need arises.

Key Features You Should Look for in a Mobile Investment App

· Feed and Store Investment Data: You should be able to enter details of any number of investments in the app, upload your investment documents, store/manage information for lifelong and update any changes from time to time.

· Security of Data: The app should be fully secured to ensure the privacy and safety of your investment details. Find out if the app encrypts all information before transferring your details into the application servers. Nobody should be able to access the information other than you and family members appointed by you. Also, when you decide to terminate the use of the app, the app should deactivate/delete your account immediately and wipe out all data from its servers.

· Share Data with Your Family Members: The app should allow you to select the preferred order of trusted family members with whom you want to share the information and list as appointees. Based on your configuration preferences, the app should enable you to create a login for the family member who will be able to access the complete or only specific investment information.

· Timely Notifications: The app should send you periodic notifications to remind you to refresh their investment details, check whether everything is fine at your end and rule out the possibility of any unfortunate circumstances. It should give you the flexibility to configure frequency and type of reminders you would like to receive.

· Guaranteed Sharing with Family Members in Your Absence: In case you fail to respond to the notifications after several reminders, the app support team should be able to contact your family members directly and share investment details with them.

A mobile investment app empowers family members to deal with the financial matters securely, easily and in a timely manner in the absence or unavailability of family head or decision-maker. It serves a dual purpose – safeguard the investments of people and keep their beneficiaries informed about the investments that they are entitled to.