THE FAMILY MINT

A FAMILY OFFICE, OFTEN CONSIDERED A STATUS SYMBOL, DOES HELP THE SUPER-RICH INVEST THEIR WEALTH IN AN EFFICIENT MANNER. BENEFITS LIKE SUCCESSION PLANNING AND RING-FENCING OF THE JEWELS COME ALONG WITH IT

- ASHISH RUKHAIYAR

FROM BILL & MELINDA Gates to Amazon's Jeff Bezos; Google's Sergey Brin to the Waltons of Walmart; Chanel's Wertheimers to Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum; Infosys' N.R. Narayana Murthy to Wipro's Azim Premji; Dabur's Burmans to Marico's Harsh Mariwala.

All of them have hired or set up firms that help compound their wealth by investing in a wide range of assets, from securities and debt to start-ups, venture funds and even new-age instruments like cryptos and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). More importantly-given the billions of dollars at stake-these firms allow the family to have complete control over its wealth. It even comes with benefits such as succession planning and ring-fencing of the wealth in case of eventualities such as creditor claims.

So, what are these firms? Welcome to the world of 'family offices' a discreet but dynamic segment that is huge globally and fast catching up in India, too. Simply put, it is a private company that manages the investments of a wealthy family. For instance, Premji's Premji Invest, Murthy's Catamaran, Mariwala's Sharrp Ventures, Burman Family Holdings or the Chona Family Office of the founders of Havmor ice cream. There are, of course, many more.

They can be categorised into single-family offices (SFOs) that cater to a single family; and multifamily offices (MFOs)—that are wealth managers or advisors that work with multiple SFOs. They can further be categorised along structural lines, with some being professionally managed with a CEO in place, while others could have a professional investment team but a family member at the helm. Then there are the smaller family offices that engage with multiple advisors, and then allocate funds to them.