INDIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Rishabh Shroff, Kunal Savani and Chirag Shah, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas
as top destinations, with capital flowing into high-val- ue sectors such as financial and business services. Simultaneously, individual wealth outflows under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) touched USD30 billion, underscoring the scale of global diversification by Indian HIs. The UAE has become a particularly significant juris- diction, with cumulative ODI of USD16.5 billion since 2000 and Indians ranking as the largest real estate investors in Dubai. Property acquisitions through the LRS route are increasingly used as pathways to Golden Visa residency, reinforcing the UAE’s role as a preferred hub for wealth migration. Jurisdictions such as the UAE and Singapore, with their tax efficiency, political stability and sophisticated financial ecosys- tems, continue to provide Indian families with endur- ing stability and strategic advantages. From a private wealth perspective, this evolution has created unprecedented demand for bespoke advisory services. Families are actively institutionalising capital through pre-IPO trust structures, global family offices and cross-border estate planning frameworks. The younger diaspora entering the millionaire and billion- aire ranks is driving demand for multi-jurisdictional tax optimisation, asset protection and succession plan- ning, ensuring continuity across generations while tapping into global markets. Beyond wealth migration, relocation decisions are increasingly shaped by personal priorities – tax effi- ciency, business opportunities, lifestyle, education, healthcare and overall quality of life. As Indian families internationalise their wealth, private client advisers are being called upon to design integrated strategies that balance wealth preservation with global expansion, positioning India’s HNI community as a rising force in the global wealth ecosystem. GIFT City – Wait and Watch for Resident Indian Families? Whilst GIFT City has been positioned as a strategic hub for managing global wealth through structures such as family investment funds (FIFs) and multi-fami- ly offices, the initiative has faced significant implemen- tation challenges. Despite a competitive tax regime offering substantial exemptions and regulatory advan-
tages comparable to Singapore and Dubai, practical obstacles have emerged, particularly with Authorised Dealer Banks declining to process remittances and blocking resident Indian families from establishing out- bound FIFs due to concerns about capital flight. Cat- egory III alternative investment funds have emerged as a practical workaround within GIFT City, offering tax benefits and operational flexibility. However, the fundamental paradox remains: GIFT City’s promise to “onshore the offshore” for resident Indian families continues to be undermined by regulatory caution and banking restrictions, leaving many families to pursue traditional offshore alternatives in jurisdictions such as Singapore and the UAE despite the infrastructure available domestically. Inheritance as a Driver of Familial Conflict In India, succession disputes have become some of the most emotionally charged cases, driven by wills and probate battles and worsened by India’s judicial backlog. While there is no single consolidated figure for all succession battles in India, estimates suggest that hundreds of thousands of inheritance and pro- bate disputes have reached civil courts over the past decades, forming a significant share of the country’s judicial backlog of more than 52 million pending cases as of 2025. Such testamentary/succession conflicts often stem not only from seemingly inequitable division of wealth but also from unresolved relationships, expectations and perceptions of fairness. With urbanisation and growing wealth, inheritance now extends beyond ancestral land to financial assets, businesses and investments, intensifying disagreements among heirs. The absence of clear estate planning makes wills con- tentious, with vague language, improper execution or legal non-compliance opening the door to chal- lenges of capacity, influence or forgery. Unequal fam- ily dynamics, especially between elderly parents and caregiving children, frequently escalate suspicions into litigation. Probate proceedings, meant to validate wills, often become battlegrounds where siblings contest claims, reviving grievances and rivalries. Cultural expectations around sons’ rights, daughters’ shares, and family
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