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34 INDIAN WEALTH MANAGEMENT - ISSUE 2, 2017
THOUGHT-LEADERSHIP
Costly lessons for succession
planning savviness in India
Marketing and communications experts in Indian wealth management feel that
awareness of having succession plans in place has grown among Indian HNI families
after the feud between the Ambani brothers.
Adi Godrej, a well-known business
leader in India, handed over the reins
of his flagship company to daughter
Nisaba in May this year. The move,
just after Adi Godrej turned 75, was
widely reported in the Indian media
which is not used to such smooth,
well-publicised transitions of power
even in enlightened business families.
Wealth advisors can help plan inter-
generational transfer of wealth and
business through a variety of ways,
by offering to mediate — even without
charge because several advisors know
HNI families quite well — or holding
next-generation events that connect
patriarchs and millennials.
“But that's changing now, you're right
about the grandfather generation and
maybe the father generation but I
see there's a certain more awareness
and understanding in things like
Ambanis hitting the headlines, our
generation, this generation, the next
generation. So, I think you would see
a certain movement to manage suc-
cession planning and the openness,”
said one marketing expert.
of the family, right. So, when you're
in a situation where there are things
that need resolved, what we have
done is we've actually got an outside
“Wealth advisors can help plan inter-generational
transfer of wealth and business through a variety of ways,
by offering to mediate... or holding next-generation
events that connect patriarchs and millennials.”
“I will just give an example, you were
talking about the clock ticking mech-
anism and that's one of the ways
how you differentiate, sometimes
we have to actually intervene or
because we become advisers and
you get invited to family weddings,
etc., they become almost extension
mediator at no cost because I am
not here in it for money. I am already
handling your money and hopefully
the next generation, but what we try
and provide advice is get someone
from outside to come and mediate
and more often than not there's no
cost associated to mediating, it's just