You Have 7 Finance Apps. Your Family Knows the Password to Zero.
Zerodha. Groww. Kuvera. PhonePe. Google Pay. CRED. Your bank app.
You check them daily. You know every login, every biometric shortcut, every OTP flow by heart.
Your family can’t open a single one.
Previous generations had one bank passbook and one LIC agent. That agent knew the policy number, showed up at the house, and helped with the claim. The passbook was in the almirah. Everything was findable.
Your generation has money in 7-12 apps, protected by fingerprints, face scans, and OTPs that go to a phone your family can’t unlock. The discovery problem isn’t that you don’t have money. It’s that nobody can find it.
The App Fragmentation Problem
Let’s count. A typical 28-year-old in a metro city might have:
| App | What’s in it | Nominee feature? |
|---|---|---|
| Zerodha | Stocks, mutual funds | Yes (demat nominee) |
| Groww | Mutual funds, stocks, FDs | Yes (demat nominee) |
| Kuvera | Mutual funds | Yes (up to 3 nominees) |
| Bank app (SBI/HDFC/ICICI) | Savings, FDs | Yes (bank nominee) |
| PhonePe | UPI, wallet balance | Limited |
| Google Pay | UPI, linked accounts | No nominee feature |
| CRED | Credit card payments, rewards | No nominee feature |
| Paytm | UPI, wallet, FDs | Limited |
| CoinDCX/WazirX | Crypto | No nominee feature |
| Company HRMS portal | EPF, ESOPs, payslips | No nominee feature |
That’s 10 platforms. Your family might know about 2-3 of them.
The apps with your investments (Zerodha, Groww, Kuvera) do have nominee features thanks to SEBI regulations. But the apps handling your day-to-day money (UPI apps, wallets) mostly don’t. And none of them will send your family a letter saying “your son had an account with us.”
The Phone Lock Problem
Every app above lives behind your phone’s lock screen. Face ID. Fingerprint. Six-digit PIN.
Your family can’t get past that first barrier.
And even if they could unlock your phone:
- Banking apps use separate PINs or biometric auth
- Zerodha and Groww need login credentials plus OTP
- OTPs go to your number, which your family now needs a death certificate and telecom office visit to access
- Two-factor authentication blocks everything
As of October 2025, UPI transactions can use biometric authentication through Aadhaar. Good for security. Terrible for inheritance.
The practical reality: your family can be staring at your phone, know you have money in these apps, and be completely unable to access any of it for weeks or months.
What Happens to UPI Accounts When You Die?
Short answer: not much, automatically.
Your UPI accounts are linked to your bank accounts. The bank accounts have their own processes for claiming money after death. But the UPI layer adds complications:
- Auto-debits continue. Your SIP auto-debits, subscription payments, and EMI mandates don’t stop when you die. They keep running until someone informs the bank or the account runs dry.
- No nominee on UPI. UPI is a payment interface, not an account. The nominee is on the underlying bank account, not on PhonePe or Google Pay.
- Wallet balances may be stuck. If you have money in a Paytm wallet or PhonePe wallet, that’s separate from your bank account. Recovering wallet balances requires contacting the app’s support team with death certificate and legal heir proof.
Read more about what happens to your UPI when you die.
The 15-Minute App Audit
Here’s what to do right now. Open your phone. Go through every finance-related app.
For each one, answer:
- Does my family know this app exists? (Yes/No)
- Can they access it without my phone? (Yes/No)
- Does it have a nominee feature? (Yes/No)
- Is the nominee current? (Yes/No)
If you answered “No” to most of these, you have a discovery problem. Your money is scattered across platforms that your family doesn’t know about and can’t access.
Which Apps Support Nominees (And Which Don’t)
Have nominee features (regulated by SEBI):
- Zerodha (up to 10 nominees per SEBI 2025 rules)
- Groww (up to 10 nominees)
- Kuvera (up to 3 nominees for MF folios)
- Angel One, Upstox, and other SEBI-registered brokers
Bank apps (regulated by RBI):
- All bank apps inherit the bank account’s nominee. Up to 4 nominees per account under the Banking Laws Amendment Act 2024.
No nominee features:
- Google Pay (UPI only, no separate nominee)
- CRED (not a financial account, but stores card data)
- Most crypto exchanges (CoinDCX, WazirX have no nominee designation)
- HRMS portals (EPF nominee is separate, set through employer)
The Fix: Not Passwords, But a List
You don’t need to share your passwords with your family. That’s a security risk.
What you need to share is a list:
For each financial app/account:
- App/platform name
- What’s in it (approximate value)
- Registered email and phone number
- Who the nominee is
That’s it. Your family doesn’t need your login to file a claim. For SEBI-regulated accounts, the nominee can submit a death certificate and get assets transferred through the demat transmission process. For bank accounts, there’s a standard claim process.
What they need is knowledge that the account exists. The discovery problem is worse than the access problem.
A Realistic Saturday Plan
You don’t need to overhaul your digital life. You need 30 minutes on a Saturday.
Step 1 (5 minutes): Open your phone. Screenshot every finance app on your home screen. Count them.
Step 2 (10 minutes): For each app, write down: name, what it holds, approximate value, nominee status. Use a simple notes app or a piece of paper.
Step 3 (5 minutes): Check nominees on Zerodha, Groww, and your bank accounts. If any are outdated (parent from college days when you’re now married), update them.
Step 4 (5 minutes): Share the list with your spouse, parent, or trusted person. WhatsApp message, email, printed page in an envelope. Whatever works.
Step 5 (5 minutes): Set a reminder to update this list every 6 months.
The one-page financial snapshot format is designed exactly for this.
What You Can Do Today
- Count your finance apps. The number will be higher than you think.
- Check which have nominees. Update any that are outdated.
- Write a one-page list of all your financial apps and accounts.
- Share it with one person.
- For apps without nominee features (crypto, UPI wallets), make sure the list is the only way your family knows they exist.
Your previous generation had one bank and one LIC agent. You have 10 apps and zero agents. The convenience is yours. The risk is your family’s.
Anshin replaces that scattered list with a secure, organized record of everything you have. Your family sees what matters, when it matters.
This information is for educational purposes. App features and nominee rules may change. Verify current features directly with each platform.