INDIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Tanmay Patnaik, Raj Chheda and Eisha Singh, Trilegal
Trilegal One World Centre, 7th, 10th, and 18th floor Tower 2A & 2B Senapati Bapat Marg Lower Parel Mumbai – 400013 India Tel: +91 022 4079 1000; +91 022 4910 8000 Email: bd@trilegal.com Web: trilegal.com
Structuring wealth before a liquidity event Pre - IPO trusts as a governance tool For much of the last decade, the private trust was understood primarily as a succession vehicle. That is changing. For a growing number of promoter families, the trust is now a governance instrument deployed well before any liquidity event, and the timing of that deployment has become one of the most critical deci - sions a family makes on the road to a public listing. Over the past decade, the percentage of Draft Red Herring Prospectuses (DRHPs), the preliminary fil - ing an Indian company makes with the securities regulator ahead of an Initial Public Offer (IPO), that involve a family trust as promoter or promoter group has roughly tripled, from 12% to approximately 37% (Basecamp To Summit: The Pre-IPO Roadmap For Promoter Families). That reflects a deliberate recog - nition that the IPO process rewards clean, transpar - ent ownership structures, even where the underlying family arrangements are complex, provided clarity is established well before the DRHP filing. The reasons are both structural and regulatory. Under the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) framework, a trust holding 10% or more of a com - pany’s shares is likely to be classified as a promoter, with all the disclosure, shareholding lock-in and liabil - ity consequences that follow. Any party to such a trust who retains powers over trustee appointments may also be classified as a promoter. The trust’s architec - ture, therefore, carries direct and significant regula - tory consequences that must be designed in from the outset, not patched on later.
Wealth Management, Disputes and Modernising the Indian System India’s private wealth story has entered a decisive and structurally distinct phase. The country is in the midst of one of the largest generational wealth trans - fers in its history, estimated at over USD1.5 trillion. Its ultra-high-net-worth population (individuals with wealth exceeding USD30 million) stands at 19,877 in 2026 and is forecast to reach 25,217 by 2031, a 27% rise, while the billionaire cohort is expected to grow by 51% over the same period (Knight Frank – The Wealth Report 2026). While legacy wealth dominates the conversation, a defining feature of the current landscape is the rise of first-generation wealth creators, including the found - ers, entrepreneurs, senior professionals and globally mobile individuals, who have accumulated significant wealth over relatively short time periods. Many are navigating the opportunities that come with newly created wealth alongside increasingly complex finan - cial, regulatory and cross-border considerations, with assets spanning public markets, private capital, oper - ating businesses and global equity compensation. Over recent years, the most consequential planning questions have sat at three intersections: liquidity and governance, mobility and exchange control, and family harmony and legal clarity. Five themes capture where the landscape for Indian private wealth is head - ing.
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