A family dealing with a sudden death has enough to manage without also discovering that the deceased’s assets are now subject to a legal formula they had no say in. That’s precisely what happens when someone dies intestate, without a valid will, in India.
Without a will, succession is governed by the personal law applicable to the deceased based on their religion. For Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs, the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 applies, and it sets out a fixed order of legal heirs, Class I heirs (including spouse, children, and mother) inheriting first and simultaneously, with Class II heirs and further relatives inheriting only in their absence. For Muslims, succession is governed by applicable Muslim personal law (Shariat), which follows its own distinct rules of fixed shares among heirs. Christians and Parsis are governed by relevant provisions of the Indian Succession Act, 1925. In every case, the deceased’s own preferences, who they might have wanted to leave more or less to, or exclude entirely, play no role at all, since the law applies its formula regardless of individual circumstances.
Practically, this means immovable property (real estate) and movable assets (bank accounts, securities, jewellery) get divided according to these fixed legal shares, and the process of establishing legal heirship, often through a succession certificate or legal heir certificate, can be time-consuming and occasionally contentious, especially when heirs disagree or when some heirs are based abroad, as is common in NRI families.
Bank and demat account nominations don’t override this legal succession either; nominees generally hold assets in trust for the actual legal heirs under Indian law, which is a point of confusion for many families who assume a nominee simply becomes the owner.
A will, properly drafted and updated as circumstances change, replaces this rigid default formula with the individual’s own actual wishes, and remains one of the simplest, most consequential documents a person can put in place.
Ashutosh Financial Services regularly sees the complications families face when this planning step was skipped. Ashutosh Financial Services continues to run educational sessions on succession planning to help families avoid exactly this situation.
