India’s rapid wealth creation has brought with it a pressing question for many families: how best to professionalise the management of their assets while preparing for succession. At a recent private roundtable in Mumbai, organised by Hubbis in exclusive partnership with Eton Solutions, leading family office principals, advisers, and wealth managers gathered for an off-the-record exchange on the practical realities of setting up a family office. Bryan Henning, Global Head of Sales and Business Development at Eton Solutions, provided the international perspective, while participants from family offices, in addition to private client lawyers and tax advisers shared first-hand experiences. The discussion highlighted the complexities of governance, technology, and intergenerational dynamics that sit at the heart of today’s family office evolution.

Key Takeaways

• Why a Family Office Matters: Families are moving from being business-led to financially-driven, making it crucial to establish structures that ensure continuity, governance, and transparency.
• Tax and Legal Complexity Is Rising: Divergent regimes between India and key jurisdictions such as the US, UK, and Singapore mean that families often face unworkable cross-border structures unless carefully designed.
• Governance Is the Hardest Piece: Constitutions and trusts are often aspirational documents. Unless tested against real-world legal enforceability and lived by family members, they risk being ineffective.
• Technology and Data Are Pain Points: Families struggle to consolidate information across banks, custodians, and jurisdictions. Platforms with AI-enabled reconciliation and reporting are becoming essential for operational efficiency.
• Generational Transition Is the Trigger: Younger members, often educated abroad, are pushing for professionalisation, external advisers, and structures that move beyond patriarchal control. Resistance from founders remains a major hurdle.
• Trust and Incentives Drive Relationships: Families are wary of hidden fees, sales-driven banking relationships, and misaligned incentives. Independent research, transparent reporting, and shared “skin in the game” are emerging as trust-builders.
• India’s Unique Context: The rise of GIFT City, the interplay between domestic and offshore assets, and the siloed approach of Indian advisers present both opportunities and obstacles.

Why Families Turn to Family Offices

The starting point for many families is a transition from operating businesses to managing financial wealth. As one participant put it, families that once concentrated on factories, real estate, or trade are increasingly seeking to become “financial families.” The trigger is often generational: a patriarch who built the business begins stepping back, while the next generation looks to institutionalise wealth management.

The purpose of a family office, participants agreed, is not simply investment management. It is about creating a governance framework to protect capital across generations, manage succession, and separate ownership from management. As one adviser noted, “making money is one thing, keeping it is another.”

Structures and Governance

Discussion frequently returned to the need for structures that balance control, participation, benefit, and accountability. Lawyers highlighted that while families often rush to create vehicles such as trusts or foundations, the “software” of governance should precede the “hardware” of legal structuring.

A family constitution was identified as a useful but risky tool. One lawyer cautioned that constitutions often blur the line between aspirational principles and legally enforceable rights. “If expectations are not met, families may unintentionally create shareholder disputes under corporate law,” the adviser warned. The consensus was that constitutions should serve as guidance documents rather than operational frameworks unless legally harmonised with company and trust law.

Participants also emphasised the unique challenge in India: entrenched patriarchal control. Even where constitutions or trusts exist, older generations are often reluctant to truly release ownership and decision-making authority. As one participant noted, “at 80, trying to design a framework for the next 50 years is unrealistic – it will fall apart faster than intended.”

Tax and Cross-Border Complexities

Tax considerations remain central to structuring decisions. Several advisers flagged the difficulty of reconciling India’s domestic tax regime with international requirements. The classic US–India conflict was cited: US rules require revocable trusts for foreign grantors, while Indian law does not recognise revocable structures. The result is a patchwork that is “never fully workable.”

Other examples included NRIs with assets across jurisdictions where different rules around succession, beneficial ownership, and reporting create unavoidable friction. Advisers described the widespread “silo mentality,” where families treat Indian assets, offshore businesses, and trusts in isolation. This lack of integration leaves blind spots and often results in conflicting advice. One adviser urged the community of lawyers, trustees, and bankers to collaborate more openly, rather than defending individual silos of expertise.

Regional Considerations

Participants compared India’s environment with other wealth hubs. Singapore and the UAE were highlighted as models, particularly for international families. Singapore offers clarity of tax treatment and strong institutional depth, while the UAE has built competitive frameworks for attracting family offices.

GIFT City in Gujarat was seen as a promising but underdeveloped option. While its potential role in hosting assets and offering tax efficiency was acknowledged, advisers noted that the supporting ecosystem – including regulation, service providers, and operational ease – remains a work in progress.

Technology and the Operational Gap

While governance and succession dominate family conversations, participants agreed that operationalisation is often overlooked. Families spend months debating structures and constitutions, but without proper systems, the best frameworks remain ineffective.

Bryan Henning emphasised that this is where family offices frequently stumble. “What I see more and more is these conversations happen, but how are you going to operationalise all this? Transparency is critical. If a patriarch wants to feel in control, you must be able to show him consolidated, accurate reporting in real time. Without that, governance remains theoretical.”

Henning noted that families are often “five years too late” in adopting technology. By then, staff may have built complex manual workarounds using Excel, low-cost accounting software, or fragmented trading platforms, none of which can deliver integrated reporting across jurisdictions, banks, and asset classes.

From Spreadsheets to Integrated Platforms

Henning traced the evolution of family office systems: paper ledgers gave way to spreadsheets, which were then replaced by accounting software like Xero or Tally, before families adopted partial trading or portfolio platforms. The missing piece, he argues, is integration.

“Our vision is a single source of truth – one reconciled database feeding accounting, investment, and tax reporting simultaneously. You cannot do this if you are juggling multiple platforms or chasing quarterly bank statements. Technology should give families visibility in hours, not months.”

Participants confirmed that aggregation remains a pain point in India. Banks are often reluctant to provide automated feeds. Some only allow data sharing on a per-client basis rather than omnibus logins, creating huge inefficiencies for multi-family offices. One participant observed that while international banks often agree to API connections, Indian institutions still rely on manual processes or charge additional fees to release client data.

Henning noted that Eton Solutions addresses this gap by embedding artificial intelligence to read and categorise statements where APIs are unavailable. “If I cannot get an API, I can still use AI to interpret the bank statement. It knows what it is reading, who the client is, and which account it relates to. That is how you move beyond Excel to a truly operational solution.”

AI and the Future of Family Office Management

AI  is increasingly viewed as the next enabler for efficiency. Several advisers noted that AI can help with data capture, reconciliation, and anomaly detection, reducing reliance on junior staff or manual processes.

Henning positioned AI as central to his firm’s roadmap. “We see the next step forward as an integrated solution enabled and powered by AI. The ability to automate reconciliation, allocate distributions, and consolidate multiple structures will change how family offices function. Our clients want to focus on governance and investment strategy, not chasing paperwork. AI makes that possible.”

Participants agreed that adoption of AI is still at an early stage in India. However, given the rapid pace of wealth creation, demand for scalable solutions is likely to accelerate. As one adviser remarked, “if you are managing 20 or 30 families, you cannot build trust if your reporting is inconsistent. Technology is not optional; it is essential.”

Succession and Intergenerational Challenges

No theme provoked more debate than the difficulties of intergenerational transition. Several participants observed that while wealth creation has been rapid in India, many patriarchs struggle to relinquish control. Even when constitutions or trusts are in place, the founding generation often continues to override formal structures.

One participant noted that this dynamic is especially acute when the next generation includes daughters or family members educated abroad who return with new perspectives. “Ownership control is extremely hard to let go of, and this creates tension when the next generation, often with global exposure, steps in with fresh ideas,” she said.

Case studies illustrated this transition. Families that once concentrated on real estate or operating businesses are increasingly carving out separate financial services arms, moving from single to multi-family office models. Professionalisation, however, exposes undercurrents of mistrust within families. Consultants engaged to draft constitutions often uncover sensitive information that older generations would prefer to keep hidden.

Trust and Incentives

Trust – between generations, between families and advisers, and between clients and service providers – was another recurring theme. Many participants expressed scepticism toward private bankers, citing hidden fees and misaligned incentives. One young principal remarked, “we trusted the banks at first, but quickly saw that incentives were not aligned. The fiduciary duty was compromised by sales targets.”

For some families, the solution has been to build in-house research teams, or to insist that advisers share “skin in the game” by co-investing. Others have explored alternative models such as research-as-a-service, where the family pays only for independent analysis and retains control over implementation.

Another participant stressed that “skin in the game” can cut both ways. “It may also mean the adviser’s interests overpower the client’s. True trust comes from alignment of incentives, transparent remuneration, and consistent delivery over time.”

Constitutions, Trusts, and Legal Realities

Participants cautioned against confusing aspirational constitutions with enforceable legal frameworks. Several advisers stressed that unless constitutions are tested against real-world corporate and trust law, families risk inadvertently creating shareholder rights or fiduciary obligations that can trigger disputes.

One lawyer summed up the risk: “If a constitution drifts into operational matters, it stops being aspirational and becomes legally binding. Families often do not realise this until they face litigation.”

Others pointed out that many Indian advisers – lawyers and accountants included – lack specialised knowledge of trust law, leading to structures that are technically flawed. Examples were given of trustees breaching fiduciary duties in related-party transactions, sometimes without even realising the implications.

The consensus was that families must distinguish between “paper trusts” and real governance frameworks lived and enforced over decades. Without clear separation of ownership, management, and benefit streams, even the best-drafted structures eventually collapse under the weight of disputes.

The Way Forward for Family Offices

As the discussion drew to a close, Bryan Henning reflected on the central challenge facing family offices: bridging the gap between ideas and execution. “The amount of insight around this table is fantastic. But the real issue is not whether families recognise the need for governance and transparency – it is how they actually operationalise it,” he remarked.

Henning noted that patriarchs are often conditioned to accept delayed or incomplete reporting. “Many principals have been told for years that you cannot get a financial report in less than a quarter. That is in the interest of those managing the data, not the family itself. We are disrupting that by providing visibility in days, not months.”

Participants agreed that families frequently deprioritise the operational dimension. Governance frameworks, constitutions, and legal advice are valued highly, but the willingness to invest in systems that make them effective often comes too late. One adviser described this as a misalignment: “Families love the advice, but they underinvest in the infrastructure needed to implement it.”

Henning summarised the shift underway. “What we see globally is a progression. From paper to spreadsheets, to accounting platforms, and now to fully integrated systems powered by AI. The next generation will not tolerate opaque, manual processes. They expect seamless reporting across structures and geographies – and technology will be the enabler.”

À propos d'Eton Solutions

À propos d'Eton Solutions : Eton Solutions est une société de logiciels et de services ERP fondée pour gérer la complexité des services offerts aux family offices et aux sociétés de capital-investissement à l'échelle mondiale. La société est basée aux États-Unis, à Research Triangle Park, en Caroline du Nord, et son siège international se trouve à Singapour et se concentre sur les marchés en dehors des Amériques. Nous proposons deux produits phares, AtlasFive® et EtonAI™, qui gèrent ensemble $1 trillion sur notre plateforme intégrée. Créé par des dirigeants de family offices, AtlasFive® regroupe et gère de manière holistique tous les actifs d'investissement liquides et alternatifs aux côtés des données, des rapports et des processus de flux de travail, tandis qu'EtonAI™ apporte des perspectives avancées basées sur l'IA et l'automatisation à tous les aspects de vos opérations. Avec une source unique de vérité, Eton Solutions propulse les family offices et les sociétés de capital-investissement vers l'avenir en maximisant l'efficacité, en minimisant les erreurs et les risques, et ont soutenu un TCAC de plus de 100% depuis notre création. Visitez notre site :