My grandmother passed away two years ago. I'm a lawyer in India — and even in our family, we recently discovered there's unclaimed TDS sitting in her income tax account from shares and mutual funds that were transferred to my uncle's name after her passing. Nobody caught it.
This got me thinking- if this can happen in a family where someone has a legal background and still knows the system — what happens in families where there's no lawyer, no CA, no one who even knows what questions to ask?
If you've been through inheritance or succession in India while living abroad — I'd love to hear your experience. Specifically:
- What was the process actually like — how long did it take, who did you have to coordinate with from overseas?
- What was the thing nobody warned you about?
- Did you manage it yourself, hire someone locally, fly back, or just leave things unresolved?
Trying to understand how widespread and how painful this problem is. Happy to share whatever I know from the legal side if it helps anyone in the thread.