Update on India’s Wealth Architects
The advisers shaping a new era of succession, governance and global mobility.
Citywealth Leaders List: Top 30 Indian Advisors and Managers 2026
India’s private wealth story has entered a decisive phase. Capital markets are buoyant. Promoter families are preparing for listings and exits. A new generation is asserting itself in boardrooms and family councils.
Alongside this shift, advisers are being asked to do far more than draft wills or structure trusts. They are expected to navigate cross border tax regimes, securities law, family governance, regulatory scrutiny and reputation management, often all at once.
This is a portrait of the advisory talent redefining private client practice in India today, and the themes that are shaping their work.
A market in structural transition
From informal understandings to institutional frameworks
India’s wealth boom shows little sign of slowing. Reports suggest that new ultra high net worth individuals are being created at a striking pace. Yet while wealth creation has become global, succession planning has often remained local, informal and reactive.
That is now changing.
Promoter families are moving beyond basic testamentary documents towards institutionalised frameworks. Trust structures, family constitutions and settlement agreements are increasingly being embedded into governance systems rather than treated as last stage exercises.
Advisers report that succession is now discussed alongside business continuity, pre IPO readiness and capital markets strategy. The emphasis is on structures that are defensible, regulator ready and capable of surviving generational transition.
Cross border complexity
Global families, fragmented laws
A defining theme of the past year has been cross border succession planning under heightened regulatory scrutiny.
Indian families today often hold assets across India, the United Kingdom, the United States, Europe, the Middle East and offshore jurisdictions. This creates exposure to:
- Conflicting succession laws
- Double taxation
- Forced heirship regimes
- Reporting obligations under exchange control and beneficial ownership rules
Clients are increasingly conscious of inheritance tax exposure in overseas jurisdictions and are alert to policy discussions at home.
The result is a shift away from reactive estate planning towards comprehensive, future ready frameworks that integrate trusts, holding structures and governance mechanisms while balancing tax efficiency and compliance.
The rise of pre IPO and promoter planning
Where private client advice meets securities law
India’s active capital markets have brought succession planning into direct contact with securities regulation.
Promoters preparing for listings are engaging advisers to structure succession plans that comply with regulatory requirements on lock ins, continuity and disclosure. Trusts are being established with careful regard to takeover regulations and listing obligations.
In parallel, advisers are increasingly called upon to:
- Restructure promoter shareholding patterns
- Facilitate internal reorganisations
- Prepare for strategic exits or private equity transactions
- Navigate reverse flips and redomiciliation
Private client advice is converging with corporate strategy in ways rarely seen before.
Governance before dispute
Preventive architecture over courtroom conflict
High net worth family disputes have grown more complex and more public.
Courts are showing greater scrutiny of delay, forum choice and strategic conduct, particularly in cross jurisdictional divorces and financial remedy claims. Wealthy families are responding by seeking early, strategic advice designed to minimise jurisdictional risk, preserve privacy and prevent opportunistic claims.
There has also been a marked shift towards non court dispute resolution in family matters. Mediation and private financial dispute resolution are increasingly preferred for their discretion and efficiency.
At the same time, advisers note a widening divide. Those with resources can opt for private mechanisms. Those without remain dependent on heavily burdened court systems.
Case studies in modern succession
The work now undertaken by leading advisers illustrates the breadth of the field.
Integrating Indian and US estate frameworks
One recent engagement involved harmonising an estate plan anchored in the United States with Indian trust and succession structures.
The mandate included:
- Establishing Indian revocable and irrevocable trusts aligned with long term family governance goals
- Coordinating wills and testamentary documentation across jurisdictions
- Advising on exchange control and tax compliance
- Working closely with overseas counsel to ensure alignment with foreign estate and gift tax regimes
Such matters reflect the growing need for advisers fluent in multi jurisdictional calibration.
Institutional trustees and global fiduciary standards
In another cross border mandate, advisers worked alongside an international institutional trustee to establish an Indian private trust aligned with an existing offshore framework.
The exercise required:
- Drafting Indian wills consistent with overseas planning
- Structuring a trust with institutional oversight
- Addressing operational mechanics, including banking, compliance and reporting
- Ensuring seamless alignment with global estate and tax strategies
The involvement of institutional fiduciaries has raised expectations around documentation, governance and accountability.
Succession within listed promoter families
Advising the promoter of a major listed enterprise demands a careful balance between family harmony and securities compliance.
In one such mandate, advisers assisted with:
- Risk mapping and identification of succession objectives
- Drafting a comprehensive family settlement agreement
- Structuring trusts for continuity and asset protection
- Analysing disclosure obligations under securities regulations
The challenge lies in creating enforceable certainty without triggering unintended regulatory or reputational consequences.
Pre nuptial agreements in international marriages
High sensitivity private client work increasingly intersects with family law.
In one cross border pre nuptial review, advisers navigated:
- Classification of separate and joint property
- Allocation of liabilities and financial support
- Child related provisions
- Residential and lifestyle arrangements
- Alignment with broader estate and tax planning strategies
Such mandates require legal precision and diplomatic negotiation in equal measure.
The mobility question
Migration, redomiciliation and wealth externalisation
Client priorities are evolving.
Earlier years saw significant migration from India to developed jurisdictions. Today the picture is more nuanced. India’s growth trajectory has made it an attractive destination for capital and entrepreneurship, even as some family offices explore overseas residency options for tax or lifestyle reasons.
Advisers are now routinely engaged on:
- Renunciation of citizenship and overseas residency planning
- Structuring wealth in light of UK and other tax reforms
- Mitigating forced heirship exposure
- Establishing compliant offshore trusts in jurisdictions such as Jersey, Guernsey, Cayman and Liechtenstein
- Reverse flips and redomiciliation into India
Exchange control regulations and tax law remain central to every such discussion.
Specialist strengths
A new generation of focused expertise
The modern private client ecosystem is increasingly specialised.
Haigreve Khaitan, Senior Partner, Senior Partner, Head Corporate, M&A, Private Equity, Khaitan & Co, Mumbai is widely regarded as a leading figure in the resolution of complex family disputes, particularly those involving high value business interests.
Himanshu Kohli, Co- Founder, Client Associates, Gurgaon a wealth manager well known to Citywealth who has been recommended unanimously and saw the wealth trend coming long before anyone knew it was a trend.
Aditi Sharma, Partner, Tax and Private Client, Khaitan & Co, Mumbai is recognised for her expertise in surrogacy and adoption matters, areas that intersect family law, succession and personal status.
Akshika Harikrishnan, Director, Tax, Private Client, Khaitan & Co, Bengaluru is noted for her deep understanding of tax, an indispensable component of cross border structuring.
Sunita Singh, Head of Private Wealth and Family Offices, Hourani & Partners, Dubai who leads the Private Wealth practice at Hourani and Partners, is regarded as a prominent figure across the Middle East and Southwest Asia, advising business families, trustees, private banks and institutions on asset protection, pre IPO planning and cross border trusts.
Rishabh Shroff, Co-Head, Private Client & Head, International Business Development, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Mumbai focuses on family governance, trust structuring and regulatory issues under exchange control and takeover regulations.
Tanmay Patnaik, Head – Private Client, Trilegal, Mumbai advises leading business houses and fiduciary providers on succession, immigration advisory and complex regulatory intersections.
Their collective work spans:
- Estate and succession planning in India and overseas
- Structuring and reorganisation of family businesses
- Drafting of wills, trust deeds and family constitutions
- Establishment of domestic and offshore trusts
- Pre nuptial and matrimonial asset protection
- Advising on Hindu Undivided Family structures
- Transmission of assets upon death
- Representations before regulators
- Philanthropy and charitable structuring
Asset ringfencing against third party and corporate liability
Regulation as a defining force
Transparency, reporting and defensible structures
Heightened enforcement under exchange control rules, beneficial ownership norms and global reporting standards has reshaped private wealth architecture.
Legacy structures that relied on opacity are becoming untenable. Advisers now emphasise frameworks that are transparent, compliant and sustainable under scrutiny.
The implementation of global tax transparency initiatives and base erosion measures has accelerated this shift. The future belongs to structures that can withstand examination in multiple jurisdictions.
Looking ahead
Governance led, globally fluent, regulator ready
India’s private client industry is entering a phase of structural maturity.
Succession planning is becoming a board level issue. Family governance is being formalised. Cross border fluency is no longer optional.
At the same time, families are more alert to reputation, privacy and dispute prevention. They seek advisers who can combine legal rigour with commercial judgement and international coordination.
In this landscape, the best advisers are those who understand that wealth is not merely to be preserved, but to be transitioned. Carefully. Transparently. And with an eye on the generations to come.
Citywealth Leaders List: Top 30 Indian Advisors and Managers 2026
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