Imagine losing your ration card. Or your voter's ID card, for that matter. The thought itself is scary, even more so when you think of the painfully tedious procedure involved in obtaining duplicates of these documents.
In case of financial documents — as well as the one required for completing financial transactions — the task is a little simpler. The ideal approach, of course, is to simply ask for a soft copy of such documents — mutual fund investments, insurance policies, etc — to avoid the stress involved in getting a physical copy replaced. If you prefer the touch-and-feel factor, however, here's what you need to know, just in case you end up misplacing your financial documents.
INSURANCE POLICIES:
The procedure for getting a duplicate is fairly simple. First, you need to inform your insurance agent or the life insurance company's call centre about your loss and place a request for issue of a duplicate document.
You will be required to submit an indemnity bond on a stamp paper (the stamp duty will depend on your state of residence). The same can be either passed on to your agent or couriered to the insurance company. If the policy document is partially damaged due to fire or flood, you may be required to produce the remnants of the policy document as evidence at the time of applying for a duplicate policy. Upon submission, the life insurer should ideally not take more than seven days to issue a duplicate policy.
FIXED DEPOSIT RECEIPTS:
The first step would be to intimate the bank where you maintain the deposit. You should inform the bank in writing about the loss of the receipts. The letter should detail the circumstances under which the receipts were lost. In case of joint depositors, the letter has to be signed by all of them. Then, the depositor is required to furnish an indemnity bond, against which a duplicate deposit receipt will be issued by the bank. Again, the stamp duty as prevalent in your state will be applicable here.
PAN CARD:
The tax angle apart, your PAN card acts as one of your key identification documents while carrying out any investment/financial transaction. Therefore, getting a duplicate PAN card is absolutely essential. The process is not very taxing. NSDL and UTI Technology Services are the two agencies authorised to issue a PAN card and you need to download the new PAN/change request/correction form from the respective websites. You can also get these forms from the designated PAN application centres. The completed form, along with the documents asked for and your photograph, will have to be submitted at the PAN application centres, along with the fee specified.
HOME LOAN AGREEMENT:
The borrower has little to lose in this case, as the original document is in the lending bank's custody, and not in the possession of the borrower. The original home loan agreement is always retained by the bank, with a copy of the same being provided to the borrower. Therefore, if you misplace the copy, you have to send in an application to the bank/housing finance company, requesting them to provide you with another copy of the home loan deed.
