Nobody reminds you to check whether your nominee is still the right person, or whether that old insurance policy is even active. Nothing about a bank account or a mutual fund folio prompts you to look at it once it’s opened — which is exactly how so much of it ends up forgotten, as we’ve written about before.

So how often should you actually look? There’s a useful floor to start from, and then a better answer than the floor.

The regulatory floor is lower than you’d think

Banks are required to refresh your KYC on a schedule set by the RBI, based on your risk category: once every two years for high-risk customers, every eight years for medium-risk, and every ten years for low-risk customers — which covers most individual savings accounts. This is a compliance requirement for the bank, not a financial review for you, and it’s a genuinely long gap. A lot can change — nominees, addresses, entire accounts opened and forgotten — in ten years without anyone checking in.

Treat this as the absolute minimum baseline, not something to model your own habits on.

A sensible cadence: once a year, on a date you’ll actually remember

Once a year is enough for most families, as long as it’s a specific date rather than a vague intention. Good anchors:

Financial year-end (31 March), since you’re likely already gathering documents for tax purposes around then.
A birthday or anniversary, if that’s easier to remember than a financial date.

On that date, a short review means:

Are all your accounts, deposits and policies still on your list, and are any missing?
Is every nominee still the right person — no one who’s since passed away, no marriage or estrangement that should change who’s named?
Has anything matured, lapsed, or gone quiet that needs action?
Does your insurance cover still match your life as it is now, not as it was when you bought the policy?

The reviews that shouldn’t wait for a date

Some events should trigger an immediate check, regardless of where you are in the calendar:

Marriage — nominees, insurance, and joint holdings all need a fresh look (see our newly married couples checklist).
A child’s birth — new nominees to consider, and often new insurance needs.
A job change — an EPF account left behind, group insurance that ends, a new employer’s benefits to record.
A death in the family — claims to file, and nominees on your own accounts to update if the person who passed was named on any of them.
Buying property, or a major purchase — new documents, new loans, new things to track.
Moving cities or countries — updated addresses across every institution, and NRI account considerations if you’ve moved abroad.

Any one of these is worth acting on the same week it happens, not filing away for the next annual review.

Why the gap between “should” and “does” is so wide

Nothing forces a review the way a loan EMI forces a payment. There’s no penalty for not checking, no reminder email from most institutions, and no visible cost — until, years later, a family is untangling an account nobody remembered. The unclaimed money we’ve cited in earlier articles isn’t evidence of neglect; it’s evidence that reviewing scattered financial information is hard, so it quietly stops happening.

Where eKosha fits

A review is only easy if there’s something to review. eKosha keeps your family’s accounts, policies and nominees in one place, so an annual check takes minutes rather than an afternoon of digging through drawers and old emails — and updating something the moment a life event happens takes even less time than that.