BESPOKE BENEFITS

AS INDIA SEES A RISE IN THE NUMBER OF BILLIONAIRES, THE DEMAND FOR BESPOKE WEALTH MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS FOR HIGH NET-WORTH INDIVIDUALS-IN THE FORM OF PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT SERVICES-HAS ALSO GONE UP

- ASHISH RUKHAIYAR

DID YOU KNOW that the billionaire capital of Asia also minted the highest number of new billionaires last year? And, according to the 2024 Hurun Global Rich List, it's not Beijing, Shanghai, Dubai, or Hong Kong. It is, in fact, Mumbai. For the first time in recent history, Mumbai has pipped Beijing to the top spot-India's financial capital is home to 92 billionaires with 27 new entrants, higher than Beijing's 91 billionaires, with six new additions. More importantly, India added a record 84 billionaires-in sharp contrast to China, which saw the number dip by 155-in a single year. Only the US, with 109 new additions, minted more billionaires last year.

With the number of wealthy individuals rising in the country, it comes as no surprise that the demand for professional money managers for the well-heeled has also gone up. While mutual funds (MFS) have become the go-to investment product for retail investors, for wealthy investors-known as high net-worth individuals or HNIs in market parlance have found their panacea in portfolio management services or PMS.

Simply put, PMS refers to a fund management firm where a fund manager manages a portfolio of stocks-typically between 20 and 30-as part of a scheme that could be designed around themes like value investing, growth stocks or entrepreneurship, among other things. The minimum ticket size for a PMS scheme is ₹50 lakh.

The growing demand for PMS is corroborated by the fact that the total assets under management (AUM) of the sector has more than doubled in the last five years, growing to ₹32.22 lakh crore as of January 2024 from ₹15.40 lakh crore in January 2019. In fact, the number of portfolio managers has more than doubled in the last seven to eight years to 400-plus.