​​​​​​​India’s private wealth market is growing and becoming more widely distributed. Initial public offerings and private equity transactions are creating new liquidity, including outside the largest cities. At the same time, families are having to manage investments and ownership across generations and jurisdictions.

Julius Baer has operated an onshore India franchise, under different ownership, for almost three decades. It combines local relationship teams with an international investment platform and capabilities spanning investments, wealth planning and structuring. Its clients include business owners, senior corporate executives and families at the upper end of the wealth market.

Ashwin Patni, Head of Wealth Management Solutions at Julius Baer India, is responsible for the product and advisory platform including the investment specialists who work with clients on portfolio construction and review. He expects a wider domestic investment market and the development of Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) to create more options for Indian families. Talent shortages, evolving regulation and low margins will make those opportunities harder to execute.

Key Takeaways

  • Julius Baer emphasises process: Patni says the bank’s global systems bring greater structure and consistency to a market historically influenced by individual relationship managers.

  • The investment policy comes first: An investment policy statement (IPS) sets out the client’s objectives, risk appetite and intended asset allocation before individual products are selected.

  • The discussion often extends beyond investments: Business-owning families may also need governance arrangements, succession planning, trusts and cross-border coordination.

  • More wealth is being created outside the largest cities: Julius Baer is currently present in seven cities and servicing clients out of 13 locations in India. The banks hub-and-spoke model allows us to combine efficiency with proximity, ensuring that our expertise and solutions are accessible to every client, regardless of geography. The model is structured to ensure full national coverage, enabling us to serve clients seamlessly across India.

  • India offers a broader range of investments: Listed equities and bonds are now joined by a deeper range of managed strategies, private markets and alternatives.

  • GIFT City now has clearer client applications: Families are showing more interest in its offshore-style ecosystem and foreign-currency opportunities.

  • Growth is putting pressure on the operating model: Experienced staff are expensive, regulation continues to evolve and industry margins remain tight.

 

A Long-Established India Franchise

Patni oversees the products placed on Julius Baer’s India platform, the advisory proposition and the investment specialists, advisers and counsellors supporting clients. Wealth planning and structuring also sit within WMS.

The India franchise began as DSP Merrill Lynch and later became part of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. It transferred to Julius Baer after the Swiss group agreed to acquire Merrill Lynch’s International Wealth Management business outside the United States. The India transfer was completed in 2015, but Patni says the local team and platform have remained largely continuous through the ownership changes.

The bank now serves clients from offices across seven Indian cities: Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata. Patni says its main client base comprises business owners, corporate leaders and ultra high net worth (UHNW) families.

 

“Historically, wealth management in India has often been driven by the personality of the relationship manager,” Patni says. “Being part of a global platform helps us bring more structure and consistency to the process.”

 

Many of those families now have children overseas, businesses in several countries or plans to establish a base in another financial centre. Julius Baer can connect those requirements with the family’s Indian relationship.

The Investment Policy Comes First

Patni says the investment conversation normally begins with an investment policy statement. For an existing client, that may require a review of current holdings and a discussion about longer-term objectives. For an entrepreneur approaching an initial public offering (IPO) or private equity exit, it may start before a large payment is received.

The investment policy statement (IPS) records the client’s risk profile, objectives and intended asset mix. It provides a basis for later decisions and helps prevent the portfolio from becoming a collection of unrelated products.

“The IPS becomes the framework for long-term wealth management,” Patni says. “We do not typically push products. We help the client understand what the different parts of the asset allocation bring to the table.”

The next step is implementation. An equity allocation, for example, can be divided among direct securities, active funds, passive strategies and other managed solutions. Fixed income and alternatives go through the same process, although less liquid assets require more explanation and scrutiny.

Patni puts considerable weight on whether clients understand the assumptions, liquidity and trade-offs behind a decision, particularly with alternatives. Reviews then test individual holdings against the IPS as markets and the client’s circumstances change.

Beyond the Portfolio

For business-owning families, the discussion often extends beyond the portfolio. Several generations may share substantial assets while living in different countries. They may need to decide how a common pool of wealth will be governed after the founder is no longer in control.

Family constitutions, agreed decision-making arrangements and succession planning can give that process some structure. Trusts may be used to ring-fence assets or preserve a common pool for long-term management, alongside specialist legal and tax advice.

 

“We try to bring the family members into a common process,” Patni says. “Their wishes need to be part of the discussion, but there also needs to be a consistent way of managing the money.”

 

Ownership, residence, succession and investment requirements may span several jurisdictions. Patni says the bank’s international network helps coordinate those issues with the client’s Indian relationship.

 

Key Priorities

Julius Baer’s first priority over the next 12 to 18 months is to deepen its reach across India. The bank has been hiring outside the largest metropolitan centres as more wealth is created in tier-two and tier-three cities.

The bank also needs relationship managers and specialists with the right skills, supported by technology and a consistent understanding of its products and services.

“India is a huge growth market, and wealth is becoming more distributed,” Patni says. “We need the right people and skills in the places where those clients are.”

The second priority is continued investment in the platform across public markets, private assets, planning and structuring. Staff must understand when each capability is relevant to a client rather than simply knowing that it exists.

The third is to make fuller use of Julius Baer’s international network as Indian families acquire more overseas interests.

 

Into the Future

Patni identifies two main opportunities. The first is the rapid increase in UHNW families. Economic growth is part of the explanation, but IPO and private equity markets are also allowing founders to convert concentrated business holdings into investable wealth.

The second is the broader investment market. Indian portfolios were once concentrated in listed equities and bonds. Advisers now have more managed strategies, private-market investments and alternatives with which to build an asset allocation.

“Ten or 15 years ago, the product opportunity was much narrower,” Patni says. “The market is maturing, and we can now create more customised portfolios.”

Talent is the first constraint. An expanding group of firms is competing for a limited number of experienced professionals, driving up compensation and the cost of building teams. Patni says the industry needs to recruit and train more younger people.

The economics of delivery are also difficult. Regulation continues to evolve, while margins remain low relative to many other large wealth markets. At the same time, staff costs are rising.

“The growth is very real,” Patni says. “But firms that want to be here for the long term still have to execute in a frugal and sustainable way.”

GIFT City Comes into Focus

GIFT stands for Gujarat International Finance Tec-City. Its International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) is intended to provide an offshore-style financial jurisdiction within India. Patni compares the concept with the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), while noting that the two operate under different frameworks.

A few years ago, Patni says, clients often knew the GIFT City name without seeing how it applied to them. The position is clearer now, particularly for families considering global investments and foreign-currency opportunities through an Indian financial centre.

“Two or three years ago, GIFT City was still seen as a curiosity,” he says. “The use cases are now much clearer, and we are having many more client conversations about it.”

 

Getting Personal with Ashwin Patni

Patni was born and raised in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He left the central Indian city to study engineering at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal, before completing a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM Calcutta). He then moved to Mumbai to build his career.

Patni has worked in banking, asset management and wealth management. Before Julius Baer, he spent close to 14 years with Axis Asset Management. His responsibilities there included the firm’s relationship with Schroders, offshore structures and the development of an alternatives platform.

“I joined Axis while it was still early in its growth journey, so I was able to take on several different roles,” he says. “Setting up the alternatives platform was particularly useful in broadening my understanding of the market.”

Patni and his wife are both engineers; she has worked in information technology services. Their son, 20, is completing an engineering degree, while their 16-year-old daughter is in Class 11.

Away from work, Patni runs and does strength training in the gym. The Tata Mumbai Marathon is his home event. His half-marathon best there is two hours and three minutes, leaving him three minutes short of a long-standing target.

“I have run the Mumbai event over the last 20 years,” he says. “I still have not broken two hours, so that remains the target.”

He also reads fiction and non-fiction. At the time of the interview, he was reading Eric Topol’s Super Agers: An Evidence-Based Approach to Longevity.