Start-ups are one of the investment options that family offices look at and this is because they can give a good return and are disruptive”

India is the challenge of segregating business and personal assets. It is for instance, not uncommon to find that in some mid-size families the CFO in the company is also managing the personal wealth. That needs to change with more professionals and advisors specifically advising the business owners on family matters because the complexity of issues they need to deal with today have changed. Regulations are also getting a lot tighter and promoters need to be on the right side of the law and not take chances.

So, how is the wealth of the rich put to work and how much returns do they expect? Most family offices, as is apparent, aim to keep the families satisfied with a post-tax return of at least between 10 to 12 per cent on their overall investment corpus. “It is essentially superior economic returns that we are proud of and work hard for. But along with the returns, we need to ensure the team is getting better, learning more about the companies it is investing in,” says K. G. Lakshminarayanan, Director at Cataily