FROM BILL & MELINDA Gates to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos; Google’s Sergey Brin to the Waltons of Walmart; Chanel’s Wertheimers to Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum; Infosys’ N.R. Narayana Murthy to Wipro’s Azim Premji; Dabur’s Burmans to Marico’s Harsh Mariwala.
All of them have hired or set up firms that help compound their wealth by investing in a wide range of assets, from securities and debt to start-ups, venture funds and even new-age instruments like cryptos and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). More importantly—given the billions of dollars at stake—these firms allow the family to have complete control over its wealth. It even comes with benefits such as succession planning and ring-fencing of the wealth in case of eventualities such as creditor claims.
So, what are these firms? Welcome to the world of ‘family offices’—a discreet but dynamic segment that is huge globally
