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Revolutionizing EPF Nominations: How eSignature Technology Makes it Easier to Choose Your Beneficiaries Online

EPF Nominations: E-signature Simplifies Online Beneficiary Selection

However, today, the introduction of e-Nomination offers the members the ability to enjoy the benefits of free electronic signature service in signing documents online.

eSignature is an electronic signature that is used by India to help facilitate the holder of Aadhaar to sign documents digitally or electronically. eSignature technology helps authenticate the Aadhaar holder through an Aadhaar-based e-KYC or electronic Know Your Customer service.

It helps speed up the nomination process and reduces or eliminates errors that occurred with the use of the typical method of signing documents.


Declaring an EPF Nominee

Declaring an EPF Nominee

In life, you make investments and other financial decisions that are crucial to you and your loved ones. You probably have earned and saved money or invested your money in numerous products such as fixed bank deposits, PPF, EPF, real estate, mutual funds, shares, insurance policies, and other products.

However, how do you ensure that the finances or assets you have garnered when alive are distributed to the persons you care about? One of the things that can help with the distribution of your Employee Provident Fund amounts is to do Nomination. A member can declare a nominee or nominees for their investments or funds and the nominee is able to claim ownership of the investment you made or the assets you acquired after you are dead.

In India, EPF is a popular saving service that applies to salaried individuals. It is important that an EPF member of the Employee Provident Fund to nominate or update nomination details for their EPF account.

When the EPF member dies, the Employee Provident Fund amounts are disbursed to the nominee or nominees that were nominated during the time of opening the EPF member account. In cases an EPF member did not nominate nominees; the amount is disbursed to immediate family members.


Updating Nomination Details for EPF Member Account

Updating Nomination Details for EPF Member Account

If you are an EPF member, you can submit nomination details as well as register nominees using Form-2 through your employer.

This process is done offline. In 2016, there were changes made on how you can change or edit nomination details electronically. Although this process was facilitated using the previous UAN Portal version, it did not offer an end-to-end online nomination process.

You still had to print out the documents of the nomination form available online and then fill them and submit it to your employer.

e-Nomination was launched in 2018 by the EPFO to provide online nomination of EPF beneficiaries. This meant that you didn't need to submit the online directly to your employer.

You could also use a digital signature app to sign the document or form through Aadhaar OTP verification, which could directly be submitted to the EPFO. To help streamline the process and make it easy for the employees and the employers, EPFO went a step further to bring a new version of the e-Nomination for EPF members whereby it could be done online via the UAN Unified Member Portal.

Today, subscribers to EPF are able to change or update their nominee or beneficiary details online and can provide the nominee's or beneficiaries' Aadhaar number and other details like a bank account to be able to get EPF member death claim amount and addresses among other details.

If an EPF member dies, his nominees' or beneficiaries can make an application for EPF member death claim online using the Aadhaar number.


Updating or Adding Beneficiary details in EPF

Updating or Adding Beneficiary details in EPF

If you want to update, change, or just check Nominations details, you can follow these steps:

Go to EPFO Unified Portal member interface

Log in using your credentials

Go to the 'Manage' tab and tap e-Nomination option

You need to update your profile photo is you haven't done so by going to 'View' then to 'Profile'. Otherwise, you cannot proceed if you haven't updated the photo.

To upload your profile picture, you need to go to the 'Change Photo' option.

When you upload your photo, you can switch back to the 'Manage' menu and head to e-Nomination

Your profile page bearing details such as Name, UAN, Date of Birth, Gender, and others will now be displayed. Make sure you provide the Permanent Address you use within the given field and save.

The system will now ask you 'Having Family: Yes.No'. In case you have family, you tap Yes, and you will be asked to feed in the details of the family members.

If you say No, you will be prompted to provide details for non-family members as your nominees

The details for the nominee include Name, Aadhaar, Date of Birth, Relation, Gender, Address, bank account details, and their photo too, which you have to upload.

When done, you can head to EPF nomination details where you will provide the percentage of the share from EPF the nominee will get and then save the details.

After you are finished with the EPF nomination details, and you have saved the information, you can move to 'Pending Nomination' where you tap on 'e-Sign'.

When using Aadhaar based e-Sign, you must provide a virtual ID. You can create a virtual ID by visiting the official website of UIDAI.

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Once you have eSigned the document form a dedicated electronic signature website, then your e-nomination will be registered with the EPFO.

You will not need to send physical docs to your employer. The process is completed online, even the signing is done online.

Conclusion

Completing EPF e-Nomination online is very crucial because it speeds up the process, eliminates errors, and it reduces the time you take to fill the forms and eliminates the costs of having to physically delivery the documents.

A member will now be able to file the pension claims for EPS online using Form 10D. If the member dies, then his nominees or beneficiaries are able to submit the EPF Composite Death Claim Form, which is usually based on the OTP on their Aadhaar linked mobile number.

The use of online electronic signature software in signing the forms helps ensure the information is fed properly and accurately and it reduces the touchpoints with the employer. For example, you don't have to visit your employer to deliver the forms. They are available online and you and your employer can access them.