The Recovery Navigator: a free tool for families claiming what they are owed

Around Rs 1.8 lakh crore of Indian families’ money sits unclaimed in banks, insurers, EPFO, fund houses and the IEPF. We have written detailed guides on recovering each kind. But when we spoke to families actually going through it, the same thing kept coming up: it is not any single claim that breaks people. It is the maze. Six institutions, six processes, six document lists, all at once, in the worst weeks of their lives.

An industry exists because of that maze. Recovery agents routinely charge 5 to 15 percent of the money recovered, sometimes with signing fees on top, for work that is mostly knowing the route and writing the letters.

So we built the route and the letters into a free tool. It is called the Recovery Navigator, and it lives at myparampara.in/recover.

Free tool. No account, no payment, no catch. Open the Recovery Navigator in any browser, on any phone.

What it does

You answer five short questions:

1. Who you are claiming for: yourself, a living relative, or someone who has passed away.
2. Whether there is a nominee or joint holder, and whether you have the death certificate yet.
3. What they held: bank accounts, insurance, EPF, mutual funds, shares, property, or “I am not sure”.
4. Roughly how much is involved, only where the amount changes the rules.
5. Which documents you already have.

It then builds your plan: one section per asset, in the order that makes sense, with the official portal for each search, the exact document list adjusted to your answers, honest timelines, and the deep guide to read when you want the full detail.

Two examples of what “adjusted to your answers” means:

• If there is a nominee, the plan tells you the bank must settle without a succession certificate or indemnity bond, whatever the amount, and cites the RBI’s 2025 directions you can quote at the branch.
• If there is no nominee and the bank balance is within Rs 15 lakh, the plan routes you through the RBI’s simplified procedure instead of sending you to court for a certificate you do not need.

The letters, written for you

This is the part families pay agents for. Fill in the names and details once, and the Navigator produces ready-to-print documents:

• A bank claim letter that cites the RBI (Settlement of Claims in respect of Deceased Customers of Banks) Directions, 2025
• Follow-up and escalation letters for banks and for EPFO, quoting the 30-day rules and interest liabilities that make institutions move
• The IEPF cover letter to a company’s nodal officer
• Draft indemnity bond and advance receipt formats to take to the notary

Every letter is a draft for you to review, and institutions can prescribe their own formats. None of it is legal advice. All of it is a working head start that used to cost a percentage of your inheritance.

What happens to what you type

Nothing. This is worth saying plainly, because you will be typing names and account references connected to a death in your family.

The Navigator runs entirely on your device. Nothing you enter is sent to us or to any server. There is no signup and no database. If you close the tab, the only copy of your progress is in your own browser’s storage, which you can clear with one tap on Start over. We built Parampara on the idea that your family’s information is nobody’s business but your family’s. The Navigator works the same way.

How to get the most from it

• Do it with the family WhatsApp group open. The plan can be printed or saved as a PDF and shared, so siblings can split the work: one takes the bank, one takes EPFO.
• Get the death certificate copies first. Ten to fifteen certified copies. The plan will tell you the same thing; it is step zero for almost everything.
• Use the follow-up letters on a schedule. Institutions respond to paper trails. Polite, written, weekly.
• When you are not sure what existed, say so in the wizard. The plan will start you on the free official searches: UDGAM for banks, MITRA for mutual funds, Bima Bharosa for insurance, the IEPF search for shares.

Why we made it free

Parampara exists to prevent exactly the situation the Navigator helps with. Our app is a private, encrypted vault where a family records every account, policy and paper while everyone is still here, so nobody ever has to search. The honest truth is that a family that just spent months recovering a parent’s money understands why that matters better than any advertisement could explain it.

So the deal is simple: the Navigator and the guides are free, for everyone, forever, no strings. If they help you, and you would like your own family to never need them, Parampara is where that starts.

The checklist to save

• Open myparampara.in/recover on any phone or computer.
• Answer the five questions honestly; “I am not sure” is a valid answer.
• Print or save the plan, and share it with the family.
• Fill the details once and generate every letter you need.
• Work one section at a time, and follow up weekly in writing.
• Never pay anyone a percentage to “release” money that is already yours.