Has India Overtaken China as the Leading Investment Destination for Global Family Offices?

New Delhi, May 27 (NationPress) Recent insights suggest that global family offices are poised to enhance their investment allocations towards India and China in the coming year, with India significantly outperforming its competitor, as highlighted in the '2025 Global Family Office' report by UBS.

According to the report, over a quarter (28 percent) of family offices intend to boost their exposure to India within the next 12 months. In contrast, nearly a fifth (18 percent) are planning to increase their investments in China, which underscores India's strong macroeconomic indicators and impressive domestic growth.

The report notes that Middle Eastern family offices showed the highest inclination to increase their investments in India, followed closely by their European counterparts.

Based on the perspectives of 317 UBS family office clients, the average net worth of these families was $2.7 billion, and their family offices manage an average of $1.1 billion each.

Significant shifts observed in the latest survey include a growing interest in developed market equities, as family offices seek to tap into structural growth opportunities.

Moreover, there has been an uptick in investments in private debt as they pursue additional yields, with some family offices planning to increase their allocation to developed market fixed income, likely as a diversification strategy.

Family offices are increasingly focused on having defined investment strategies for sectors like healthcare and electrification, while they are eager to explore the potential of various emerging technologies in both public and private markets.

On the operational front, the report suggests that generative artificial intelligence (AI) will be leveraged for financial reporting, data visualization, and text analysis over the next five years.

Additionally, a separate report from last month indicated that single-family offices in the Asia Pacific region have surged to 2,290 (an increase of 28 percent since 2019) and are expected to surpass North America, growing 40 percent to reach 3,200 by 2030, with India undergoing a similar transformation.

A rising number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals and startup founders in India are increasingly adopting institutional family office frameworks for effective wealth management and succession planning, as noted in a white paper by Lighthouse Canton, a global investment institution.

Furthermore, a recent industry analysis revealed that the count of family offices in India has escalated nearly sevenfold over the past six years, from 45 in 2018 to nearly 300 in 2024. This remarkable growth is driven by the thriving startup ecosystem and the generational transfer of wealth, with many Indian families seeking institutional-grade investment strategies and governance solutions.