Factory Floor or Family Office? India's young rich are alarming elders by cashing out inheritances and shifting to wealth management. Alok Sanghi, 42, sold his majority stake in family cement business Sanghi Industries to Gautam Adani's Ambuja Cements Ltd. in 2023 and now runs a Dubai real estate empire, a volleyball team, startups, and a $100 million family office through Resolute Corp. "Now business owners want to separate the two so that the fate of the business and families are de-coupled," he said. The trend worries some billionaires.

Uday Kotak, 67, lamented scions taking "the easy way out" running family offices instead of creating real-world businesses. Yet for older dynasties like the Wadias (since 1736) and Bajajs (since 1905), carrying the baton forward remains about identity and social credit. Raamdeo Agrawal, co-founder of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd., urges his son to earn respect through the trade.

India's financial boom has made family offices viable for medium-sized firms, with over 300 recorded in 2024 versus 45 in 2018, per Pw C. Excluding billionaires, the country has around 944,000 millionaires, estimates UBS.