Business Beyond Wealth

The numbers are staggering. The uber rich and famous in India may be sitting pretty with a combined investible wealth of some Rs 10 lakh crore. Managing the dollops of cash of this class is a task. Indeed, delivering stellar returns that beat the luxury inflation rate (usually higher if not double the Consumer Price Index) is becoming a specialised affair. Every rupee invested creates a big impact for investment decisions are often accompanied with the endorsement of businessveterans.

It cannot be ignored that these Ultra High Networth Individuals (UHNWI), each with investible funds of anywhere between Rs200 crore to Rs300 crore, depending upon how you measure it, are a growing tribe and already quite sizeable.

Consider an important finding of the Credit Suisse Research Institute's Global Wealth Report 2017. Only a small fraction of the population in India (just 0.5 per cent of adults) have a net worth of over $100,000 but, given India's size, even this small percentage translates into 4.2 million people. Equally significant is the finding that the country has 340,000 adults in the top 1 per cent of global wealth holders.

So, how do these people, many of them founders of companies, handle this personal wealth that they have assiduously built? How do they ensure that it does not get eroded and is not just preserved and grown but also smoothly transferred to the next