Breakaway wealth firms in India now advise over ₹1.38 trillion in client assets
A wave of senior wealth managers quitting legacy houses to launch independent ventures has crossed the ₹1.38 trillion mark in advised assets, testing whether PE-backed start-ups can scale profitably in a market set to double by 2029.
At least six wealth management firms founded by teams that walked out of established Indian houses are now advising clients on assets worth more than ₹1.38 trillion, according to industry figures. The breakaways, spanning former employees of LGT Wealth, IIFL Wealth, Edelweiss Financial Services and HDFC Asset Management Company, represent a structural shift in how India's wealthiest clients are served.
The timing is significant. Deloitte projects India's wealth management assets under management will nearly double to $2.3 trillion by FY29 from $1.1 trillion in FY24. DBS Bank counted 13,600 ultra-high net worth individuals in the country in 2024, each holding a net worth above ₹25 crore. That growth is pulling talent out of legacy platforms faster than those platforms can adjust their compensation models.
The economics of walking out
The trigger is straightforward arithmetic. A relationship manager overseeing a ₹1,000 crore client book generates roughly ₹10 crore in commission income for the firm but typically receives around ₹2 crore in salary and bonus. At smaller book sizes the split still favours staying; at scale it no longer does. Stock options at several large platforms have become either unavailable or immaterial for senior staff.
"Over time, many RMs begin to perceive that they have become bigger than the brand," said Maneesh Kapoor, founder and joint CEO of TriGen Wealth, which was formed late last year when about 35 employees left LGT Wealth together. "Clients often start associating more closely with the individual than with the firm."
TriGen's co-founder Sailesh Balachandran noted that founding teams can secure far more meaningful equity participation through ESOPs than they would as salaried employees, an incentive sharpened by growing private equity interest in the sector.
Private equity enters, and with it a clock
Veriqus Partners, incorporated in August last year with a team drawn largely from DSP Merrill Lynch (now Julius Baer), has raised capital from Norwest Venture Partners. Dezerv, founded by former IIFL Wealth executives Sandeep Jethwani, Vaibhav Porwal and Sahil Contractor, counts Premji Invest, Elevation Capital, Matrix Partners India and Accel among its backers.
That funding brings pressure. "The lifespan of the PE fund may be over before the wealth management firm even starts making money," one industry veteran said, pointing to the mismatch between fund horizons and the time needed to build a profitable advisory practice.
Feroze Azeez, joint CEO of Anand Rathi Wealth, warned that high fixed costs and the urgency to recover them can push firms toward products with large upfront commissions, such as unlisted shares or alternative investment funds, at the expense of lower-margin offerings like mutual funds. "I am more worried about what pressure to monetize quickly can do to client portfolios," Azeez said.
Scaling beyond the founding book
Cost discipline is a priority. Ashish Gumashta, founding partner at Veriqus, said the firm is hiring from campuses and training young staff rather than competing for expensive senior talent. TriGen's Balachandran pointed to technology replacing manual mid-office functions such as analytics, portfolio reviews and data mining as a way to trim overheads.
Yet Azeez cautioned that reaching critical mass is deceptively easy when founders monetize relationships accumulated over decades. The harder task is winning entirely new clients once that initial book is exhausted. Whether these ventures become durable institutions or remain boutique operations will depend on that answer.
