Daybreak - India’s millionaire households grew by 90%. Wealth managers are scrambling to catch up

Episode Date: September 18, 2025

India’s millionaire households have jumped 90% in just four years, and a gold rush for wealth managers has begun. Firms like Nuvama, Kotak, and 360 One are in a race for high-net-worth clients—deploying relationship managers, slashing rates, and dangling exotic products to stay ahead.But the old playbook of generous distribution fees is colliding with a new reality. Today’s wealthy are savvier, fee-sensitive, and increasingly leaning on advisory-first models or even building in-house family offices. That’s left pure-play firms in a difficult spot, even as VC-backed challengers chase growth at all costs.Tune in.P.S. Are you a manager, recruiter or founder who has been part of a hiring process in the last year? Rahel from 90,000 Hours  wants to hear from you. Take our survey.Compete in India's first and only case competition.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

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Over the last four years, India's elite have multiplied fast. The latest Huron wealth report released just yesterday shows that Indian millionaire households have increased by 90%. To break it down, their numbers have surged from about 4 lakhs in 2021 to nearly 9 lakhs in 2025. and each household reportedly holds a net worth of at least 8.5 crore rupees. The report also highlighted Mumbai as the millionaire city of the country, with its concentration of nearly 1.5-lac millionaire households.

And one family office head in particular, whose base there, had been spending most of July battling a phone that wouldn't stop buzzing. He oversees more than 3,000 crore rupees in assets under management or AUM. So who was on the other end? They were all designated relationship managers from eight wealth management firms, calling him relentlessly. Think Novama, Kotaq, 361, ASK, Sanctum and Ambit. And all of them had the same pitch to apply for knowledge reality, a real estate investment trust or REIT's IPO through their platform. He told the Ken reporter Akriti Bhala that they pitched it as an easy way to own commercial real estate without big upfront costs.

and they even offered to waive their 1.25 commission just to get the deal. Anas Rahman Junaid, the founder and chief researcher of Hurun India, said, and I quote, India's wealth creation is real and resilient. And this steady growth of wealth means that there's more for wealth managers to well manage. And as a result, these non-stop calls have become a wealth manager's drill for every new security, REIT, new company or fund on the block. What they do is this. They identify the.

rich, those who have an average net worth of $3 to $12 million, and the ultra-rich. They have a net worth of over $12 million. Then begins the relentless outreach through events, cold calls and LinkedIn. Even though push tactics rarely work in this industry, relationship managers have to put their qualms aside because the targets are just that huge. Take Anandrathe Group, for instance. A former executor from the Financial Services Conglomerate said that relationship managers were told to bring in one-crow rupees from each client

and find at least 50 such clients in a year. But with everyone chasing the same pool, it wasn't that simple. After all, opportunity may have grown, but so has competition. Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host, Rachel Virgis, and every day of the week, my co-host, Nikda Sharma and I will bring you one new story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Friday, the 19th of September.

In 2024, the number of wealth managers at private banking and wealth management firms crossed 10,000 for the first time. This is as per Asian private banker, a data platform. Wealth managers working for the top 30 private banks and wealth and asset management firms together managed $800 billion. Obviously, the market has only gotten more crowded over time. Banks like Kotuk wealth, ICICI private banking and Barclays control 15% of it, according to a 2023 Bernstein report. Brokers such as Nuwama and 361 have also joined in, along with multifamily offices like Waterfield and Entrust

and newer entrants like Sanctum, Neo, Incred and Equerous. These new players often cut prices to get in the door. But since they have fewer in-house products than the big banks, the advice is the product and the relationship has to pay for itself. Now, India's richest 1% who together owns 60% of the country's total assets keep much of their investments in property, fixed deposits and gold. But those holdings are steadily being financialized, fueling the rise of family offices.

Some prefer multifamily outfits, others set up their own, while many still work with banks or wealth firms. Traditionally, wealth managers would funnel clients into mutual funds from their subsidiaries, alternate investment funds or AIS from sister firms or IPOs anchored by their investment banking teams. This means they were earning advisory, brokerage and distribution fees. But family offices are getting smarter.

Three offices told the Ken that they're now relying on wealth managers more for the advice and less for the distribution. And in more bad news for the managers, these offices have also been shopping around for lower fees at different firms. Naturally, that's cutting into earnings. At 361, wealth managers earn a commission of 0.6% of investment value through distribution. But under advisory, it's just 0.3%. Sebi rules haven't helped either, which have clearly stated that investment advisors can't multitask as distributors.

Still, according to an executive, firms dodge these rules with separate entities for advisory and distribution. He added that this kind of mis-selling was quite rampant. Another industry executive, who has worked across wealth management firms and multi-and-single-family offices, describes the fixed fee or advisory plus models as a lollipop for investors. Basically, once wealth managers land a client, they often find ways to earn more by the second or third year. For instance, one family office executive recalled a wealth manager pushing space tech startup Agni Kul's shares at a 30 to 35% premium over the grey market price. In fact, in wealth management circles, there is a term for this. Client wallet mining.

More in the next segment. A relationship manager recalled how a wealthy Delhi client hinted that they may move their portfolio. to another firm, where a family friend had just signed on. This rival had closed to €2,000 crore rupees AIF, promising almost 27% internal rate of return or IRR with minimal onboarding charges, a slicker app, access to private deals and crucially much lower annual fees. Now, the rival was not offering all these perks because of generosity.

This was purely survival. We spoke to Sachin Jain, head of the family office and corporate treasury at Trigen Wealth, a wealth solutions provider founded just this April. He told us that the norm used to be a 3 to 4% annual fee on a client's portfolio, but post-COVID, it's now down to as little as 0.5 to 1%. The new low rates are especially being offered by new age private equity and venture capital-backed firms. To keep up, legacy firms have had to follow suit. Now, companies try to be competitive on pricing and products. But in terms of returns, a Chennai-based wealth manager said that if clients

net 8 to 12% after fees and taxes, that's a good enough marker. Shriya N.S., co-founder and director at Entrust Family Office, added that even then, competitive firms will still pitch exotic products like REITs, AIFs and special situation funds, which earn higher commissions. According to her, any seasoned advisor will tell you to keep it simple. Invest in research-backed mutual funds and disciplined managers. The Ken spoke to six executives, including relationship managers and fund managers. They said that most of the money wealth managers make comes from trail income, that is, revenue earned from existing clients.

For instance, according to the Bernstein report, firms like 361 and Nuwama each employ hundreds of relationship managers with average portfolios of rupees 1400 to 1,500-crow. A senior executive at Nuwama said that many new companies being listed, have promoters financializing their assets, and the money they make selling shares is the wealth they want to grow. Of the 20 to 25% year-on-year-on-year growth in AUM, Bernstein estimates 10 to 15% comes from fresh inflows. According to Shreepria, between 2020 and 2024,

the stock markets were on a bull run. Investors started looking at this exceptional period as a norm, and wealth managers capitalized on this. But with the nifty flattening between July 2024, to 2025, expectations have cooled. For clients with under 500 crore rupees, a 1 to 4% fees means 5 to 20 crore rupees in costs, a case in which clients still prefer advisory. Those with more than 500 crore rupees though are increasingly building cost-effective in-house

teams, often poaching from wealth firms and hiring a few analysts and operations people. Basically, the market is shifting and clients are shifting with it. Stay tuned. The wealth management market is changing fast. The elite clients who once relied on relationship managers now shop around, pit offers against each other and demand more for less. Advisory-only firms are feeling the squeeze the most. Their fees are lower than distribution models and unlike full-stack players such as Nuwama and 361, they can't cross-sell products. At 361, for instance, wealth management is just one arm alongside the brokerage and investment banking.

This has helped the firm double revenue to 2,000 crore rupees and quadruple profits to 800 crore rupees in FY20 to 24. On the other hand, there's advisory-focused waterfield advisors, founded in 2011. As per data from Market Intelligence Platform Traxon, it saw its revenues jump three times to 47 crore rupees, but its losses widened four times to about 29 crore rupees in the same period. According to an industry executive, a large part of this is employee costs, because the company had been focusing on getting experienced wealth managers on board. Wealth managers everywhere are experiencing the heat. But some are better off than others. Trigen's Jen said that if a firm

does both investment banking and wealth management, it can get leads from the former and cross-sell products across verticals. And that puts it in a better position than pure play wealth management firms. Competition has also made referrals less reliable. A relationship manager with over 10 years of experience at a legacy bank told us that earlier, one CFO client could connect him to 10 others. Now, by the time he reaches out, these referrals have already been poached by new firms that offer rock bottom fees. These are the PE and VC-backed firms whose motto is AUM now, profit later. That said, wealth managers believe the industry. will continue to grow at a breakneck speed.

Even as clients continue to find ways to cut their expenses. Just like that Mumbai-based family office from earlier, which finally chose to bid for knowledge realty, but this time on their own. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings. A full subscription offers daily long-form feature stories,

newsletters and a whole bunch of premium podcast. To subscribe, head to the ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the Ken website. Today's episode was hosted and produced by my colleague Rachel Varghees and edited by Rajiv Sien.