Small cities, towns drive demand for wealth managers
wealth management companies — many of which had their origins as boutique city-based firms — are expanding to tier-2 and -3 cities, as wealth in these places has ballooned in the past two-three years, opening new markets for them.
This is leading to a surge in demand for wealth managers, or private bankers, triggering a talent war and an all-time high churn at the top deck, said senior company executives.
Emergence of new millionaires in towns such as Morbi, Vapi, Panipat, Ludhiana, Tiruppur, Raipur, Dehradun, Jamshedpur and Rajkot — among several other tier-2 and tier-3 locations — is prompting outfits such as Motilal Oswal Private Wealth, 360 ONE Wealth & Asset Management (formerly IIFL Wealth) and WhiteOak Capital AMC to open offices there and ramp up their teams, as they cater to clients worth Rs 2 crore to over Rs 1,000 crore, said the executives.
“Wealth creation is no longer the forte of the top cities, neither is it confined to the coffers of the ultra-rich,” said Prateek Pant, chief business officer, WhiteOak Capital, which has set up offices in 50 new micro markets like Guwahati, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Trichy in the last one year.
This is spurring a huge demand for professional money managers in smaller towns, added Pant.
Besides, young millionaires are growing at a fast clip due to a surge in liquidity events with significant wealth creation among startup founders and corporate professionals through IPOs and ESOPs.
“The need for wealth managers is booming with a jump in new people coming into money as an increase in liquidity events enable startup founders and young professionals in large, listed companies in manufacturing, engineering, real estate, and services, to grow their wealth,” said Ashish
