Last week we spoke about wills and why every family, regardless of wealth, needs one. A reader wrote back the same evening and said something that has stayed with me. She said: "I sat down to write my will and realised I did not even know where half my documents were. How do I leave instructions for things I cannot find myself?"
That response captured something important. Building financial knowledge is one thing. Having your financial life organised so that you, and the people who depend on you, can actually access it when needed is another. The two go together. A portfolio carefully built over twenty years can cause enormous distress if nobody knows where it is held, which platform has the login, or whose email receives the statements.
This week, we build the map.
Take the Test: The 3-Step Visibility Check
Think of this column as a financial inventory exercise. Not an audit of how much you have, but a check of whether what you have is accessible, updated, and findable. Go through each category below and ask yourself honestly: do I know where this is, is it up to date, and does at least one trusted person in my life know about it?
Bank accounts are where most financial lives begin and end. For every account in your household, you should know the bank and branch, the account number, the registered mobile number, and the name of the nominee. Many families have accounts opened years ago at banks they no longer use actively, with mobile numbers that have since changed and nominees that were never updated after a marriage or a birth. An account with an outdated nominee can create months of legal delay when you need it most. This week, log into every account and check the nominee name. If it is wrong or missing, update it.
Fixed and Recurring Deposits: Locating Your Forgotten Savings
Fixed deposits and recurring deposits are the documents most commonly lost. They are opened with good intention, tucked away safely, and then the safe place is forgotten. For every fixed deposit in your household, note the bank, the amount, the maturity date, and the nominee. If it has already matured and auto-renewed without your knowledge, check what interest rate it rolled over at. Many deposits renew at the prevailing rate, which may be lower than what you originally earned.
Mutual fund investments require particular attention because they are increasingly held across multiple platforms and folios. A folio is your unique investor number with each fund house. If you have invested through different platforms over the years, you may have folios you have forgotten about. The easiest way to find all your mutual fund holdings is through the CAMS or KFintech websites, which are the two registrar services that hold records for almost all fund houses in India. Enter your PAN number, and you will see a consolidated view of everything held in your name. Check that the email and mobile number registered with each folio is current, because statements, OTPs, and redemption confirmations go there.
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Insurance Policies: Closing the Most Expensive Nomination Gaps
Insurance policies are where the most expensive gaps are hidden. Take out every policy in your household, whether life, health, vehicle, or any other, and for each one note the insurer, the policy number, the sum insured, the premium due date, and the nominee. Pay particular attention to whether the nominee reflects your current family situation. A policy bought before children were born with a parent as nominee, or a policy bought before marriage with a sibling as nominee, may not serve the people you most want to protect. Updating a nominee on an insurance policy takes a phone call or a form. It takes twenty minutes. It can change everything.
Your Employees Provident Fund account deserves its own moment of attention. Many people contribute to EPF throughout their working lives without ever checking the balance, updating the nominee, or confirming that the UAN, the Universal Account Number, is linked to their current employer. Log in to the EPFO member portal using your UAN and check the nominee, the linked mobile number, and the balance. If you have changed jobs without transferring your EPF, you may have balances sitting with previous employers that you have simply stopped thinking about.
Public Provident Fund: Reviving and Relocating Your Long-Term Safety Net
The Public Provident Fund is one of the safest long-term savings instruments available, and many households have one, sometimes opened at a post office or bank branch years ago. Check the account balance, the maturity date, and the nominee. If your PPF is at a post office and you have since moved, consider whether it makes sense to transfer it to a bank branch closer to where you live now.
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The Master Key: Creating Your One-Page Financial Blueprints
Finally, the document that holds all other documents together: a single consolidated record of your financial life. This does not need to be elaborate. A single page, or a notes file on your phone, that lists every instrument, where it is held, what account number or folio number identifies it, and who the nominee is. Keep it updated once a year, ideally at the same time you file your taxes. Tell one trusted family member where it is.
This list is not meant to overwhelm. It is meant to make your financial life visible to you, and through you, to the people who depend on you. Most of what is described above takes an evening to organise the first time and twenty minutes a year to maintain.
The goal is simple. Everything you and your family have worked to build should be findable, accessible, and transferable without confusion or delay. Your documents are not just paperwork. They are the proof of everything you have done.
Because Laxmi does not only build wealth, she keeps it safe, organised, and ready.
Write to us at iamolaxmi@gmail.com. We read every letter.