The rise of wealth management in India

Indian Wealth Management sector is growing at a phenomenal pace. Most of the prominent financial services firms in the country have set up private client verticals to be a part of this growth story.

The prognosis from here on is equally good. India's GDP has been growing at a respectable rate and has a strong growth outlook. This makes the country an attractive playground for wealth management firms.

Presence of a large and young affluent customer base, improving financial, literacy levels, globally connected populace, a goal to more tightly regulate financial services by the Indian government, and an increasing share of organized companies compared to the unorganized workforce are some of the ingredients that could make for a very attractive wealth management market in the times to come.

India currently has the fourth-largest number of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) in the Asia-Pacific region, after Japan, China and Australia.

However this sector also has its own set of challenges and the biggest among them is the lack of qualified manpower. Having interacted with a lot of senior leaders from the wealth management sectors off late- I am sure about one thing that their major challenge today is to get the right talent - candidates whose aspirations and abilities are in sync with the organization’s expectations and plans.

In the absence of clear understanding of the private wealth management sector among the young professionals, there is an alarming mismatch among the expectations of the candidates and the job reality which is either leading to job-hopping or sector attrition. There is an urgent need to enhance capabilities in the industry which is evolving very fast.

Indian markets are expected to perform well over the long term, even amidst fluctuating global scenerio. The rise in the numbers of centra-millionaires is expected to get a major push with the Government stepping up reforms and the world increasingly getting attracted towards India.

In this light Wealth Management will continue to gain significance among the wealthy. Today, for a wealth management company, balancing the needs of staff, clients, stakeholders and regulators is the key to success and they need to get all the get all the four right.

Thus we strongly believe that Wealth Management, more than any other industry depends on talent. Whether it involves handling new products, deftly managing complex risks, keeping up with multi-jurisdictional changes in regulations, exploiting market gaps, or effective relationship management, we need highly qualified and well trained professionals in the wealth management industry.