In 1996, India revolutionized investing by introducing dematerialization. NSDL and later CDSL made shareholding safer and more accessible by converting physical share certificates into digital entries. But while the system evolved, many investors could not.

Ask your parents or grandparents if they ever owned shares in the 90s. You’ll probably hear stories of dusty folios, handwritten certificates, and that one broker who used to yell buy/sell orders over a noisy landline. The stock market wasn’t the most transparent place back then physical shares meant courier delays, forged signatures, lost documents… or worse, forgotten wealth.

That’s exactly why NSDL (and later, CDSL) were created. But despite their efforts, thousands of shareholders especially senior citizens and NRIs continued holding physical shares. Some felt the share values were too small to bother. Others were simply too busy building their lives and wealth to navigate regulatory hurdles.

As time passed, many investors lost track of their holdings, some passed away without transferring their shares to heirs, others forgot what their folios even were.

We’ve all seen headlines like:

“Man discovers ₹50 lakh worth of shares in late father’s papers” “Retired teacher finds lost shares now worth ₹1.2 crore”

But here’s the problem: there’s no central government database to track unclaimed shares. The information is scattered — buried in company disclosures, RTA records, old forms, and the IEPF website.

That’s Where Organizations Like Claim360 Come In

At Claim360, we’ve spent years building a proprietary database of unclaimed and IEPF-transferred shares tracking folios, cross-verifying with RTAs, and piecing together what others miss.

We specialize in helping families reclaim long-lost investments, assisting NRIs in recovering Indian shareholdings, and supporting senior citizens with paperwork even in complex cases involving multiple folios, missing nominations, or lost certificates.

So, If You or Someone You Know Still Holds Physical Shares… that “small value” from 1998 could be worth lakhs today.

But time is running out. SEBI has mandated that all physical shares must be dematerialized by 31st December 2025. Failure to act could result in permanent loss or reclassification under the PMLA.

Don’t let your family’s legacy vanish into paperwork and policy. Let’s help India reclaim what’s rightfully theirs. Reach out. Get your shares checked. -> https://claim360.in/contact-us/