when you opened a bank account a demat account or made some investment you would have come across a column on nomination you may have skipped the column because you didnt have a photograph necessary documents or the patience to read through the entire form before parking your money in that investment but what many dont realise is that nomination is important a nomination gives the nominee usually a family member a rightful claim to your hardearned money especially at the time when they have a pressing liquidity need also not every investment works like a term insurance which ensures that your family gets the benefit after your life time if you have not filled up the nomination form dont fret it is never too late to go back to the bank the company or the amc to fill in those details they have a separate form for nomination which can be filled up even after you have made the investment the importance of a nominee every bank account holder investor or owner of any immovable asset should have a nominee it is not necessary that the nominee of the bank account asset or investment has to be the final beneficiary the nominee will be the custodian of the account after the death of the actual investor account holder it is not the bank or the amcs prerogative to ensure every account holder or investor has a nominee the onus is on the investor to ensure hasslefree transfer of assets after hisher death says sandeep nerlekar md ceo warmond trustee and executorsthe process the nomination process is very simple one has to just fill up a form to assign nominees to your bank accountinvestment usually there is a column on nomination in an application form for opening a bank account or starting an investment if you did not fill up the details in the application form you can still walk up to the bank branch or the company and do the needful however the process is a tad different in case of properties typically a house is in a cooperative housing society and is owned by virtue of owning shares these shares can be transferred to the nominee and the ratio of the share ownership has to be mentioned in the share certificate but again this nominee is a mere custodian of the property and not the owner unless stated in the will says nerlekar choosing a nominee it is best to choose a major your grownup child spouse or dependent parents as nominee married couples usually choose their spouse as the nominee some nominate their spouse and children the assumption here is the child usually lives longer than the spouse or the investors parents there are situations where a couple separates or the investors spouse may die unexpectedly in such cases the investor has the flexibility to change the nominee even a simple change of mind can be a reason for changing the nominee