SEBI to investors: Use DigiLocker on top of Mutual Fund, Demat nomination from April 1; how will it help?

Starting from April 1, the first day of the New Financial Year 2025-26, stock market and mutual fund (MF) investors can fetch and store their statement of holdings for shares and MF units from their Demat accounts, along with their Consolidated Account Statement (CAS), on DigiLocker.

Additionally, investors will also be able to authorise DigiLocker nominees to access their investment details upon demise, according to a new circular from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

The markets regulator issued the circular titled, “Harnessing DigiLocker as a Digital Public Infrastructure for Reducing Unclaimed Assets in the Indian Securities Market” on Wednesday (March 19, 2025).

"The inclusion of MF and Demat holding statements within DigiLocker, can make available the entire financial holdings of individuals in a single account - DigiLocker," SEBI said.

The circular further said, "At SEBI’s instance, a mechanism has been created whereby the DigiLocker automatically notifies the DigiLocker Nominee/s about demise of the user through SMS and e-mail."

SEBI’s advisory for investors

The markets regulator has issued the following advisory for investors to make the best use of the new facility:

• Investors may consider using DigiLocker and also consider specifying nominee/s for the DigiLocker.

• The DigiLocker nominee would be over and above the nomination/s, if any, made in their Demat account and MF folio.

• In the case of the demise of the investor/user, the DigiLocker nominee will get a notification. The DigiLocker nominee can then access the account of the deceased and view documents fetched by the user.

• The DigiLocker nominee can initiate the transmission of the deceased investor's financial assets if s/he is also the nominee in the account/folio of the investor.

• If the DigiLocker nominee is not the nominee in the Demat account/folio, then s/he can pass on the information in the holding statement of MF units and Demat account to the surviving joint holder, or the nominee of the account, or the legal heir of the investor, as the case may be.

How will it help

The new initiative will help in minimising the creation of unclaimed assets (UA) in the securities market. Also, it will make it easy for nominees to access the investment details of the deceased investor.

"The above mechanism can prevent the DigiLocker user’s investment in financial assets from becoming unidentified UA, if their holding statements were fetched (downloaded) in the DigiLocker account," SEBI said.

Investors holding physical securities can also use the new facility by opting to dematerialise their holdings.

The nomination mechanism in DigiLocker will, however, not alter the norms governing transmission for the mutual funds or demat account.