From paper trails to portals: Guide to online MF transfers

CAMS and KFin Tech’s fully online facility allows investors to transfer MF units to anyone

- Maulik M

Until a few months ago, adding a joint holder to your mutual fund (MF) investments was not as simple as it appeared.

That changed in May 2025, when CAMS (Computer Age Management Services) and KFin Technologies — the two registrar and transfer agents (RTAs) that handle all mutual fund back-end operations—launched a fully online facility that lets investors transfer MF units to anyone, including modifying ownership details seamlessly.

Starting November 2024, such transfers were allowed only for specific situations such as after the death of the investor. Besides transfer, adding or deleting a joint holder was also made seamless. “Adding or deleting joint holders changes the ownership pattern and is, therefore, deemed as transfer,” said E.S. Varadarajan, chief process and risk officer, CAMS. A folio can have up to three holders in total.

This shift follows a directive from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and Association of Mutual Funds in India's (AMFI) best-practice guidelines, marking a major step in digitalizing mutual fund transactions.

Why this matters

This online facility enables investors holding mutual fund units in non-demat or statement of account (SOA) mode to transfer their units seamlessly under various circumstances, such as gifting them to a family member or friend, transferring to legal heirs as a nominee after the investor's death, or adding or removing a joint holder.

All MF scheme units, except for solutions-oriented ones, such as children’s schemes and retirement schemes, can be transferred. Notably, transfers in the case of MF units held in a demat account with a broker have always been transferable; however, they represent a smaller share of the overall investor base.