Opening a Zerodha account for a family member or friend
You cannot open a Zerodha account for a family member or friend using your own registered mobile number and email ID. The rule is set by SEBI : every individual client must have unique contact details, a mobile number and email of their own, so that communications and reports from the exchanges, the depositories and the broker reach the actual account holder rather than a third party. There is one narrow, declared exception for a defined set of family members, and there are several legitimate routes for helping a relative invest, but operating someone else’s account or using your contact details for their account is not, in general, permitted. This article sets out the rule, the reasoning behind it, the family exception, the prohibition on third-party operation, and the lawful alternatives.
The question comes in two forms. One is about opening: can I open an account for my spouse, parent, child or friend on my phone and email? The other is about operating: can I place trades in my relative’s account, or let them place trades in mine? The answers differ in detail but share a foundation. The KYC and anti-money-laundering framework treats an account as belonging to one identified person, who must be reachable and who must be the one transacting. Both forms of the question run into that principle.
The default rule: unique contact details
Zerodha’s own support guidance is direct. You cannot open an account for a family member or friend using your registered mobile number and email ID. The stated reason is operational and protective: when unique contact details are provided, it is easier for clients to track communications and reports shared from the exchanges, the depositories and Zerodha. Put plainly, your relative’s contract notes , trade alerts, depository statements and grievance correspondence have to land in their inbox and on their phone, not yours.
This is a SEBI requirement, not a Zerodha preference. SEBI mandates a unique mobile number and email ID per client. The same logic drives the related rule that even the second and third holders of a joint demat account are asked to register their own mobile and email. The framework wants a direct, unmediated channel between each named person and the market infrastructure that serves them.
The consequence of ignoring it is concrete. If the same mobile number and email are found linked across multiple individual accounts without a valid declaration, the broker must seek unique contact details, and failure to update them can lead to restricted access to the trading account on grounds of KYC non-compliance. This is not a dormant rule; Zerodha actively emails clients whose contact details appear on more than one account.
Why third-party operation is prohibited
Operating another person’s account is a separate and firmer prohibition. Regulations do not allow one account to place orders on behalf of another, even if the other account belongs to a family member. The account is tied to one identified person under the KYC record, and trading authority follows that identity. Someone else placing orders in it, without a recognised legal authorisation, breaks the link between the identified holder and the transactions done in their name.
The reasoning sits in the anti-money-laundering framework. Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and SEBI’s KYC norms, an intermediary must know, on a continuing basis, who the beneficial owner of an account is and who is actually transacting. An account operated by an undisclosed third party defeats that requirement, because the person on the KYC record is not the person dealing. This is also why brokers ask for a shared contact details declaration when contact details overlap: the declaration restores transparency about who is who.
The practical line Zerodha draws is clear. Its family portfolio view feature lets you add up to ten family members’ Zerodha portfolios and track the consolidated holdings from one account, but only viewing and tracking is allowed, and only after the family member explicitly authorises it from their own account. The feature deliberately stops at monitoring. Regulations do not allow placing orders on another’s behalf even if it is a family member, so the tool gives you a consolidated view and nothing more.
The declared family exception
The one carve-out is narrow and conditional. If you and certain family members have already shared contact details across accounts, you can keep them by filing a declaration rather than changing them. The eligible family members are restricted to spouse, dependent children and dependent parents. A friend, a sibling who is not a dependent, or any wider relation does not qualify.
The mechanics are specific. Each affected pair submits a shared contact details declaration along with the family member’s ID proof, which may be a birth certificate, marriage certificate, passport, masked Aadhaar or PAN evidencing the relationship. In addition, each family member submits a separate account contact details declaration confirming the arrangement. The exception is therefore not a loophole that lets one person quietly run several accounts; it is a documented, relationship-proven declaration that the broker and depository can rely on.
Two boundaries are worth stressing. First, the exception covers shared contact details, not shared operation. Filing the declaration does not authorise you to trade in your dependent parent’s account; it only legitimises the overlap in mobile and email. Second, non-individual accounts are treated differently: you may use your existing contact details to open a Hindu Undivided Family, partnership or corporate account, because those are distinct legal entities rather than another individual.
Operating in reverse: letting someone trade in your account
The mirror-image case carries the same answer. Letting a relative or friend place orders in your own account is no more permitted than placing orders in theirs. The prohibition is on one identity transacting in another identity’s account, and it runs in both directions. If a family member is to trade in your name without a recognised authorisation, the KYC record again ceases to describe the person actually dealing, and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act beneficial-owner requirement is defeated.
This is worth stating because the informal arrangement people slide into is often the reverse of what they ask about. A parent opens an account and hands the login to a market-savvy child to trade; a spouse trades the other spouse’s account on a shared phone. Each is a third-party operation, each breaks the identity link, and each is the kind of arrangement the unique-contact-detail rule and the prohibition on dealing for others are designed to surface. The compliant version is that each adult holds and operates their own account, and any cross-operation is put on the record through a power of attorney or an authorised person mandate lodged with the broker.
The legitimate routes
If the goal is to help a relative invest, the framework offers clean paths that do not require bending the contact-detail or operation rules.
The first and simplest is that the family member opens their own account in their own name, with their own mobile number, email and bank account. You can sit beside them and walk them through the account-opening flow , or send them the Zerodha sign-up link , but the account, the contact details and the PAN are theirs. This is the route for any adult relative or friend, full stop. Once the account exists, the family portfolio view lets you keep a consolidated eye on it with their permission.
The second route is the guardian arrangement for a minor. A child under eighteen cannot contract, so a minor account is opened in the minor’s name and operated by a natural guardian or a court-appointed guardian until the minor reaches majority, at which point the account is re-KYC’d in the now-adult holder’s name. This is a recognised legal structure, not a workaround, and the guardian’s authority is documented at opening.
The third route is a power of attorney or an authorised person arrangement where the law permits one. A registered PoA can authorise specific actions on a holder’s account, and an authorised person operates under a defined mandate. These are formal, declared instruments lodged with the broker and, where relevant, the depository. They differ from informal operation precisely because they are on the record and bounded in scope. They are the exception that proves the rule: third-party action is allowed only when it is authorised, documented and disclosed.
How the contact-detail rule is enforced
The rule is not policed only at account opening. The depositories and the broker periodically scan their client base for the same mobile number or email ID appearing on more than one individual account, and Zerodha emails the affected clients asking them to provide unique contact details. A client who receives that email and does nothing risks the trading account being restricted on KYC-non-compliance grounds until the contact details are made unique or the family declaration is filed.
Where the declared family exception applies, the paperwork is the resolution. The eligible holders file the shared contact details declaration with relationship proof, each also files the account contact details declaration, and the overlap is then on the record as a sanctioned arrangement rather than an unexplained anomaly. The declaration does not need to be repeated unless the relationship or the contact details change. For a HUF, partnership or corporate account opened on an individual’s existing contact details, a similar declaration confirming the relationship between the individual and the entity is couriered to Zerodha.
The friction here is deliberate. The framework would rather impose a declaration and an ID-proof step than let contact details float freely across accounts, because the cost of getting it wrong, statements and grievance correspondence reaching the wrong person, falls on the investor whose channel has been hijacked. The rule protects the holder as much as it constrains the helper.
What this means in practice
For an adult family member or any friend, there is no shortcut. They open their own account with their own contact details, and you help from the sidelines. For a minor, the guardian structure is the correct and legal route. For a genuine, dependent family relationship where contact details already overlap, the shared contact details declaration regularises it, but it does not hand you the right to trade in their account.
The two things you cannot do are the two things people most often ask about: you cannot open a relative’s or friend’s account on your own mobile and email outside the declared family exception, and you cannot place orders in someone else’s account without a recognised authorisation. Both rules trace back to the same requirement that the person on the KYC record is the person who is reachable and the person who transacts. Working with that requirement, rather than around it, is what keeps an account compliant and the holder protected.
See also
- Zerodha
- How to open a Zerodha account
- How to open a Zerodha minor account
- What data Zerodha collects when you open an account
- Demat account
- Trading account
- Opening multiple accounts at Zerodha
- Opening a Zerodha demat with an existing account
- Why Zerodha collects PAN and Aadhaar through DigiLocker
- eKYC vs offline KYC at Zerodha
- Documents required for a Zerodha account
- Know Your Client (KYC)
- KYC Registration Agency (KRA)
- Prevention of Money Laundering Act
- Permanent Account Number (PAN)
- Aadhaar
- DigiLocker
- Power of attorney
- Authorised person
- Contract note
- CDSL
- NSDL
- Depository participant
- SEBI
- Stock broker
- Zerodha Console
- Kite by Zerodha
- Nomination
- Zerodha charges
- How to open a Zerodha commodity account
External references
- Zerodha support: Can I open an account for a family member or friend using my registered mobile number and email ID?
- Zerodha support: Why did Zerodha send an email about multiple accounts using the same mobile or email?
- Zerodha: Introducing family portfolio view on Console
- SEBI
- SEBI SCORES grievance portal
References
- Zerodha support, Can I open an account for a family member or friend using my registered mobile number and email ID? (as of 19 June 2026).
- Zerodha support, Why did Zerodha send an email stating multiple accounts have been created using the same mobile number or email ID? (as of 19 June 2026).
- Zerodha, Introducing family portfolio view on Console, Z-Connect (as of 19 June 2026).
- SEBI, Master Circular on Know Your Client (KYC) norms for the securities market, October 2023.
- Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002, and SEBI KYC norms thereunder.