Prelude: If you recall I wrote this article earlier, Are You Storing Financial And Other Documents Wisely?, explaining the importance of keeping financial documents safe and handy for family members.

But is it only for family members that one should keep documents organised and safe? Well honestly speaking, it’s a part of it. All the mundane documentation done while investing is essential for our own benefit…

✓ To keep track of our investments;

✓ To review the performance of investments;

✓ Change of nominations;

✓ Update personal details (address, telephone number, bank details, etc.);

✓ Serves as a valid proof in terms of making redemptions/ renewals;

✓ To increase the monthly investment amount;

✓ And, in case of our absence, helps family members in making claims on our behalf.

The plot:

Let me tell you what happened to my cousin, Tanmay, who had asked me about what would happen if he has missed a SIP instalment.

Tanmay called me last weekend to ask how he could retrieve information about his dad’s investment, which was invested 15 years ago into a mutual fund.

I listened intently to what Tanmay had to say, “My father had invested in an equity scheme for retirement, and now in 5 years he is about to retire. He wants to reduce the holdings from equity to something less volatile. But he just doesn’t remember where he kept the investment documents.”

I inquired, “Has he maintained a record of all his documents in an organizer?”

Tanmay responded, “No! What’s an organizer required for?”

I explained, “Getting organized is an important step towards leading a financially fit lifestyle. Collect important documents and create a filing system to keep yourself organized.  Creating an organizer that mentions the location of the other important documents helps locate them. “

“Did your dad, receive any updates of fund information via emails?” I asked.

“Well yes, he did say he used to receive some investment statements in emails”, Tanmay said.

“Great!” I continued to explain further…

With IT advancement, using online platforms or investment trackers that are freely available helps you to keep a record of the investments. Such trackers can provide an updated/latest valuation of all investments you hold.

A Consolidated Account Statement (CAS) provides a consolidated view and valuation of your mutual fund investments of various fund houses under your PAN number. You can request for a copy from CAMs or KARVY to issue this statement either as an email or hard copy once in six months if there were no transactions during the month. Click here to get your statement.

If a part or entire of your father’s mutual holdings are in demat form, you can request for a CAS from the Central Depository Services Limited (CDSL) or National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL). Through this CAS, holdings in demat account(s) held with NSDL and CDSL as well as in units of Mutual Funds held in the Statement of Account (SOA) form will be consolidated.

You can also request for a statement by accessing the links below:

CDSL – https://www.cdslindia.com/cas/logincas.aspx

NSDL – https://nsdlcas.nsdl.com/

If he has invested directly, you can contact the customer service helpline of the respective fund house.

Before ending the discussion, I reiterated, the importance of keeping the documents organized.

One way is to keep it simple! Nowadays, maintaining too many documents in a physical form is cumbersome. Try and avoid getting paper documents, instead opt for the virtual tracking facility and get updates via emails or phones.

So that you can have a copy of it online and keep a record of it on google drive that is password protected. If you have multiple fixed deposits, then ensure you have an online copy of the receipt of the FD created. Besides, you can scan all other important documents and keep it on the drive so that you can use it virtually from any place with the aid of an organizer.

In case of a loss of a document, immediately apply for a copy of the document. Stating the basic details like Pan and Aadaar, folio no if it’s a mutual fund held, and bank details at the financial institutions like broking companies and the Fund / AMC / RTA for the redemption of units or close the account or transfer the units.

Always be disciplined and organized. As it will pave way for your overall financial wellbeing. If you think organizing your documents is difficult with the paper and electronic statements, agreements, receipts, and bills coming your way, you can try a little organizing exercise.

Classify the documents as per the following list, to help you get started

Table: Classification of documents

Documents not required	Receipts, Bills of purchase from groceries, etc.
Documents to retain for a year	Credit/debit card statements, with the ATM Receipts to tally
Documents to retain for a few years	Bank statements, Tax deductions, Income tax related details
Documents to retain until required.	Big purchases, Insurance papers, loan-related documents
Documents to keep forever	Personal details, wills, passport details, Pan card, Aadhaar.

(for Illustrative purpose)

Epilogue:

He thanked me and hung up the phone.

But from this I realised, most people do have a hard time being organized and lose track of their initial investments.

Keeping the documents safely in an organized manner will help you to be in control of your finances, be prepared for dire situations, and manage your finances adequately. Besides, it will even help your family as well to handle the financial paperwork in a hassle-free manner in your absence if you have shared the details of organised documents.

This article first appeared on PersonalFN here