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On April 6, around 60 ultra-high net worth Indian families met at Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace Hotel to get a glimpse of how they should be preserving their wealth in the coming years.
Addressing this elite group was UK-based Campden Wealth, which, along with the family office of the Patni group, RAAY Global, launched Campden Family Connect India. Campden interacts with 10,000 global families and has in its club around 1,500 families as members. Campden provides education, information, facilitation to legacy wealth holders globally. According to a recent survey, the challenges Indian ultra high net worth individuals (HNIs) face include succession planning and preservation of wealth.
According to Campden Wealth’s Chief Executive officer (CEO) Dominic Samuelson, India currently has 2,500-3,000 ultra HNIs, with around $100 million in wealth, which will double in the next decade.
“It’s not that we are in India for the first time; we have conducted forums for Indian HNIs previously. We do monitor the family office development globally. In India, private wealth is growing exponentially. The old-world wealth originates in the West and the new world wealth originates in the East. The East is growing faster than the West and, hence, we want to be in India. Rather than operating from outside of India, which has been our traditional way, we have built a relationship with the Patnis, which allows us to have a team on the ground, working and serving the needs of our customers,” said Samuelson.
According to reports, India has around 6,000 individuals and families whose wealth is between $30 million and $100 million. Samuelson says the family office concept is nascent in India. Campden’s expertise is in providing education, information, facilitation to legacy wealth holders globally. Although the threshold for Campden Wealth is to target families with assets above $100 million, it has brought down the entry point to $50 million for India.
“We are not here to serve the new and upcoming wealth generators. We are aware that in the Asia-Pacific, wealth generation has been in the first and second generations. The issues we focus on such as succession, governance, wealth management, children and then giving, do not resonate well with young entrepreneurs but fit with people who are at the end of their business cycle and plan to either hand over to the next generation or are actively looking at handing over the wealth portfolio,” he added.
One of the biggest challenges for HNIs has been preserving the wealth and finding the right way of investing into different avenues.
Samuelson adds that Indian’s and Asian’s have traditionally focused on real assets and precious metals as investment route rather than a more liquid portfolio when compared to their Western counterpart, however that is changing fast. “I would say, better understanding of capital markets and the benefits it can provide to a portfolio diversification strategy and returns is required. There is issue of sophistication and maturity of local capital markets that enables families in India and APAC to engage in these category,” he added.
Amit Patni, founder, RAAY Global, said: “Before we met the Campden team, we wanted to create a platform that would have brought families together, where they can share experiences, and the platform would make you learn various aspects of wealth creation and preservation. What we liked about them was that Campden’s club was exclusive, with 80 per cent members being marquee families, and the discussions at their forums were well curated and families actually attended these workshops.”
On the first meet-up with over 60 marquee families of India, the conversation hovered over how to integrate the new interest that next generation has with the existing business and how to make the next generation responsible for preserving the wealth. “For instance, Amit’s (Patni) concern is how he brings up his children and how they can utilise the wealth appropriately,” says Samuleson.
