If you hold a demat account or a mutual fund folio in India, naming a nominee is the single cheapest step that protects your family from years of paperwork after you are gone. You can add or change a nominee online in minutes, and SEBI now lets you name up to ten people.
Quick answer: Log in to your CDSL or NSDL depository portal, or your AMC or RTA portal, open the nomination tab, add up to ten nominees with a percentage share for each, and confirm with an OTP or e-sign. Offline, submit the signed nomination form with two witnesses to your DP or RTA. You may also opt out using a declaration form.
Nomination is the facility that lets you name the person who can claim the securities or units in your demat account or mutual fund folio after your death. The nominee receives the assets and hands them to the legal heirs. It speeds up transmission but does not by itself decide final ownership.
Nomination for securities is governed by the Depositories Act 1996 and SEBI regulations, with the regulator being the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The current framework comes from SEBI circular SEBI/HO/OIAE/OIAE_IAD-3/P/ON/2025/01650 dated January 10, 2025, which revamped nomination across demat accounts and mutual fund folios. It allows an investor to name up to ten nominees per account or folio, each with a stated percentage share, and where no share is stated the assets are split equally.
A key relief came earlier through SEBI circular SEBI/HO/MIRSD/POD-1/P/CIR/2024/81 dated June 10, 2024. It did away with the freezing of demat accounts and mutual fund folios of existing investors who had not submitted their choice of nomination, and removed the freeze on corporate benefits and physical folio servicing. So an existing account is not frozen merely because nomination is pending. New investors, however, must still provide a choice of nomination, either naming a nominee or opting out, when they open an account or folio.
Real-life example: Dr. Shrawan Kumar Pathak of Patna district opened his demat account years ago and never added a nominee. In February 2026 his daughter Kashvi Pathak helped him log in to the CDSL portal, where they named her and her brother as two nominees at fifty percent each, then confirmed with an Aadhaar OTP. The whole task took about fifteen minutes and cost nothing. The next week they repeated it on the CAMS portal for his three mutual fund folios, so every investment now carries a clear nominee.
Under the SEBI January 10, 2025 circular you can name up to ten nominees per account or folio, with a percentage share for each. If you do not state shares, the assets are divided equally among them.
No. SEBI through its June 10, 2024 circular did away with the freezing of demat accounts and mutual fund folios of existing investors who have not submitted their choice of nomination. New investors must still make a choice when opening an account.
Yes. You can choose to opt out of nomination by submitting the prescribed declaration form. This is a valid choice, though naming a nominee is strongly advisable to ease transmission for your family.
No. The nominee receives the securities or units to hold for the rightful legal heirs. Final ownership is decided by your will or by succession law, not by nomination alone.
Yes. You can change or delete a nominee at any time and as often as you want, online through your portal or by submitting a fresh signed form to your DP or RTA. No fee applies.
No. SEBI has kept the choice of nomination for trading accounts voluntary. The mandatory nomination or opt-out choice applies to demat accounts and mutual fund folios.
No. Only individuals can be appointed as nominees. Entities such as a trust, company, HUF or association of persons cannot be named as a nominee.
You need your PAN, your BO ID or folio number, a registered mobile for the OTP, and each nominee name, date of birth, relationship and identifier. For minors you also add a guardian.
Newer rules you may also want to read:
New 2026 update on RTI Wiki: SEBI insider trading: expanded UPSI rules from 2025