It’s not uncommon for shares worth a few thousand 50 years ago to increase in value phenomenally. Case in point was an Air India captain whose father left him a fortune he had no idea about.
Back in the early 60s, a doctor in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra invested between Rs 3000 – 5000 (USD$428 – 714) in shares of various companies. He passed away in 1970 and the family moved away, completely unaware of these investments. In 2015, Asset Tracers Global began a hunt for the rightful heirs to his assets. The team started out in Ahmednagar, where the family had lived, and continued on a gruelling search for the beneficiaries. An old neighbour told them about the doctor’s son, who had become a captain with Air India. The search moved to the Air India office and revealed that the beneficiary was now retired in Bangalore with his family and training young pilots there.
The team made contact and flew to Bangalore to discuss his unclaimed shares. Since his father had made his investments back in the 60s, the shares had grown to a whopping Rs 35 crore (USD$5.5 million). Within a year, the legal team at Asset Tracers Global was able to successfully claim the money for him.
