Net worth certificate: bank, visa or SEBI accreditation, three different faces

Summary

There is no prescribed format for a CA's net worth certificate, but the purpose decides what its face must carry: a bank or tender wants the group-wise break-up, a visa or education-loan file wants the figure in the foreign currency with the rate and its date printed beside it, and SEBI's circular of 9 January 2026 lets an accredited-investor certificate say only that the threshold is met. Decide which of the three you are signing before you draft, because the wording, the table and the as-on date all change with it.

The situation

Three net worth certificates can arrive in the same week in October. A student's father needs one for a US university's funding proof. A contractor needs one for a tender. A client with a portfolio wants to be accredited as an investor so that an AIF can take him in at a lower ticket size.

Most offices produce all three from the same Word file. One such template on CAclubindia has been downloaded more than 81,000 times. It is built for the first case and gets hand-edited for the others, which is where the mistakes come from: a converted figure with no rate, an as-on date from June, or a full break-up of a client's wealth attached to a document that no longer needs one.

The rule

What does not change with the purpose:

• UDIN is mandatory on every certificate a CA signs, since 1 February 2019 (ICAI announcement). It is generated within 60 days of signing, and since ICAI's rename of 8 June 2026 a certificate goes under the category "Certificates and Other Reports".
• No statutory format exists. ICAI's Guidance Note on Reports or Certificates for Special Purposes (Revised 2016) governs the engagement, and in October 2025 ICAI's Centre for Audit Quality published a Handbook on Certificates by Chartered Accountants with illustrative formats, net worth statements among them.
• The core elements are fixed: letterhead, client and purpose, an as-on date, assets and liabilities, the net worth, a paragraph on what was examined and what was not independently verified, the restriction on use, and the signature block with membership number, firm registration number, UDIN, place and date.

What changes:

The SEBI column comes from SEBI's circular of 9 January 2026 on accreditation under the AIF framework, which, as reported by ELP and others, provides that the certificate need not attach a detailed break-up, that stating the actual net worth is optional for the certifying CA, and that it is sufficient if the certificate states that the investor's net worth meets the specified threshold.

Where people go wrong

A converted figure with no rate. "Net worth USD 1,20,192" tells the visa officer nothing he can check, and the lakh-style commas give away that someone typed it into a rupee template. Print the rupee figure, then one line: the amount in the other currency, the rate in rupees per unit, and the rate's source and date. Convert the net worth, not each asset; a certificate that converts every line at a different day's rate cannot be reconciled.

The June certificate in an October file. Visa and loan desks look at the as-on date, not the signing date. A certificate signed today on figures as on 31 March is six months stale before it is posted. For these files take a current as-on date and current balances.

Printing the whole portfolio for an accreditation. The accredited-investor certificate goes to an accreditation agency and may be seen by more people than a bank manager. Since January SEBI does not need the break-up or even the figure. If the client's net worth clears the threshold, say so and stop.

Certifying a threshold the figures do not support. The corollary of the threshold-only format is that it hides the number. If the computed net worth is ₹7.2 crore, "not less than ₹7.5 crore" is a false certificate, however close.

Choosing the threshold for the client. The accredited-investor thresholds sit in the SEBI (AIF) Regulations, 2012 and SEBI's accreditation framework, and they differ by category (individual, HUF, family trust, body corporate) with more than one limb for individuals. ₹7.5 crore and ₹50 crore are the figures most often quoted. Confirm the one for this investor's category from the regulation before you type it.

Softening the verification paragraph. "Which we have not independently verified, except where specifically stated" is the sentence that protects you. In March 2026 a Disciplinary Committee order was reported holding a CA guilty for certifying on "blind reliance"; the certificate's own words are the record of what you checked.

Last client's UDIN. A UDIN belongs to one signed document. A template that keeps it has already produced one wrong certificate.

What to do

1. Ask what the certificate is for and who will receive it, and write both into the addressee and the restriction-on-use paragraph.
2. Pick the face from the table: full break-up, break-up plus a foreign-currency line, or threshold only.
3. For a visa or loan file, fix a recent as-on date, and take the rate from a source you name, dated.
4. For an accreditation, take the threshold for the investor's category from the SEBI (AIF) Regulations and check that the computed net worth clears it before you draft "not less than".
5. Generate the UDIN under "Certificates and Other Reports" and keep the working papers with the documents each figure came from.

The tool

I rebuilt that Word template because I was hand-editing it for every purpose that was not a bank. The net worth certificate generator builds the certificate as you type the assets and liabilities under the usual heads, with the group-wise break-up, the amount in words, editable examination wording and an annexure that names itself on every printed sheet. Fill three optional fields and it prints the net worth in a second currency with the rate and its source beside it; leave any of them blank and nothing prints. Tick the threshold-only box and it drops the table, the words and the currency line and certifies "not less than ₹X", printing [BELOW THRESHOLD] in red where the computed figure does not support it. It warns on screen when the as-on date is more than 90 days old, names the UDIN category, and prints the client intake sheet you send before any figure exists. It does not generate or verify a UDIN, it does not value any asset or convert individual assets, and it does not decide which SEBI threshold applies; the three preset figures are labelled as commonly cited for you to confirm. Nothing is uploaded; client profiles live in your own browser.

Open the networth certificate page

Sources

1. ICAI — UDIN mandatory with effect from 1 February 2019 for all certificates — https://www.icai.org/post/15371
2. ELP Law — SEBI simplifies accreditation requirements for investors under the AIF framework (16 January 2026) — https://elplaw.in/leadership/sebi-simplifies-accreditation-requirements-for-investors-under-the-aif-framework/
3. AIF Services — SEBI simplifies the accreditation process — https://www.aifservices.in/p/sebi-simplifies-accreditation-process
4. IndiaJuris — SEBI simplifies requirements for grant of accreditation to investors (9 January 2026) — https://indiajuris.com/newsletters/sebi-simplifies-requirements-for-grant-of-accreditation-to-investors-09-january-2026/
5. Taxscan — ICAI releases Handbook on Certificates by CAs (11 October 2025) — https://www.taxscan.in/top-stories/icai-releases-handbook-on-certificates-by-cas-comprehensive-checklist-formats-october-edition-1434685
6. A2Z Taxcorp — ICAI revises the UDIN portal categories — https://a2ztaxcorp.net/icai-revises-taxonomies-categories-on-the-udin-portal/
7. TaxGuru — UDIN compulsory for certificates signed from 1 February 2019 — https://taxguru.in/chartered-accountant/udin-compulsary-certificates-signed-1st-february-2019.html