Ratgeber: Inheritance planning

The documents each bank asks for, what changes when a nomination exists, what happens for a joint account, and how long a transmission claim realistically takes.

Which court to approach, what it costs, how long it realistically takes, and when a legal heir certificate or a nomination would have been enough instead.

How units and shares pass to a nominee or legal heir, what each registrar and depository asks for, and the thresholds that decide whether you need extra documents.

What makes a will valid in India, whether registration is required, how many witnesses you need and who they must not be, and the mistakes that cause disputes later.

Repatriation limits, FEMA rules and tax treatment, plus the documents an Indian bank, registrar or insurer will ask an NRI or their nominee abroad to produce.

Mutation, succession certificate and probate, and which one you actually need. The order to do them in, what each costs, and where families most often get stuck.

The documents an insurer needs, the IRDAI timelines they must work within, the reasons claims get queried, and what to do when an insurer asks for more.

Assigning each record to a person and a backup, setting the waiting period, and choosing what evidence has to arrive before anything opens for anyone.

What a nominee is told, what they have to prove, how the portal works without an account, and roughly how long each stage takes from first notice to final claim.

Letting a professional see only the records that concern them, with an expiry date, a full log of what they opened, and the ability to revoke access at any moment.