From 2 Am Calls To Poker Tables

Dear Reader,

One of my closest friends works as a private banker at a mid-sized firm.

He always corrects me when I say “wealth manager.”

“Private banker, not wealth manager,” he says.

The distinction matters. Private bankers typically work inside big banks or institutions, often with a more exclusive, relationship-heavy mandate. Wealth managers (especially in boutiques or independent firms) can be more flexible, product-agnostic, and hands-on with day-to-day portfolio decisions. But the lines are blurring fast, and the job is evolving no matter what you call it.

That’s in part because India is producing rich people at a speed most countries only dream of. 

Roughly 86,000 individuals now have more than Rs 80 crore in investable assets, up from around 80,000 just a year ago. Ultra-high-net-worth numbers (that’s people with investable assets worth Rs 250 crore and above) are growing even quicker—some projections say nearly 50% by the end of the decade.

The old scripts aren’t the only ones anymore, either. 

Yes, many of India’s wealthy still come from gilded families and generations of inheritance.

But a growing share is coming from somewhere fresh: India’s startup boom has minted first-generation founders and early employees who cashed out via IPOs. Fintech, SaaS, tech manufacturing, they’re creating fortunes at a pace we’ve never seen before.

These new millionaires (and many of the next-gen from old money) are looking for professional advice on how to grow their wealth. 

Enter: wealth management.

The people doing this work are getting younger too—often in their 20s and 30s, fresh MBAs or CFAs thrown straight into relationships with clients old enough to be their parents, sometimes grandparents.

As well, they don’t just offer portfolio advice. They’re on call 24/7, answering 2 am questions about college choices or factory expansions. They deliver fruit baskets on random Tuesdays, tag along to car showrooms on weekends, blur the line between professional and personal.

Lomush Raj, a wealth manager at a mid-sized firm, told me:

“There have been times I’ve taken fruits for my clients… just randomly taken a fruit basket and sat there, lied to them and told them I came across this and thought they’d like it… Once you catch them in that ecosystem, they’re never gonna leave it.”

Prafful Singh, at another firm, takes it further:

“Most of my clients… are more or less like family to me. I invite them for my family events. They invite me for theirs… This weekend I was with a client who wanted to buy a car. He wanted me to accompany him to select the model.”

So what’s in it for these advisors? 

After all, they’re building someone else’s fortune—sometimes literally handing over car keys at a poker table to keep the trust alive.

But they’re also stacking networks and gaining access to rooms they might never have entered otherwise. 

Lomush put it plainly: he feels the imbalance at times (“I’m making other people richer over myself”), but he’s in it because he believes if he plays his cards right, he can become wealthy too, or at least end up with connections that change everything.

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Best,
Kudrat
on behalf of The Core

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