Wealth in India: Sizing the Market Opportunity 2016

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Driven by economic performance, over the past few years the Indian wealth market has impressed with strong growth rates, which are expected to continue to 2020. India currently holds the crown as the world’s fastest growing major economy and, as such, it is beginning to positively distance itself from Brazil, Russia, and China. This, aligned with the substantial Indian population, underlines the huge potential of the market for wealth managers.

Scope

Verdict Financial’s “Wealth in India: Sizing the Market Opportunity 2016” report analyzes the Indian wealth and retail savings and investments markets, with a focus on the HNW segment. The report is based on our proprietary datasets.

Specifically the report:

– Sizes the affluent market (both by number of individuals and the value of their liquid assets) using our proprietary datasets.

– Analyzes which asset classes are favored by Indian investors and how their preferences impact the growth of the total savings and investments market.

– Examines HNW clients’ attitudes towards non-liquid investments such as property and commodities.

– Identifies key drivers and booking centers for offshore investments.

Reasons to Buy

– Benchmark your share of the Indian wealth market against the current market size.

– Forecast your future growth prospects using our projections for the market to 2020.

– Identify your most promising client segment by analyzing the penetration of affluent individuals in India.

– Evaluate your HNW proposition by understanding how the Indian tax system will impact HNW clients.

– Review your offshore strategy by learning about HNW motivations for offshore investments and their preferred booking centers.

Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Indian wealth market remains one of huge potential

Key findings

Critical success factors

SIZING AND FORECASTING THE INDIAN WEALTH MARKET

Wealth in India is extremely concentrated at the top end

Affluent individuals account for just

0.8% of India's population

India's wealth is heavily concentrated; the affluent hold over 90% of liquid assets

NRIs hold a sizable proportion of onshore liquid assets

DRIVERS OF GROWTH IN THE INDIAN WEALTH MARKET

India's retail savings and investments market will continue to grow strongly

Strong economic performance will drive growth

The Indian retail savings and investments market is dominated by deposits and direct equity

Deposit and equity holdings will continue to grow fast

Deposits will continue to drive the overall retail savings and investment market

Financial inclusion is slowly increasing deposits

Falling interest rates and high inflation may reduce the appeal of deposits

The Indian stock market is fueling investment in both equities and mutual funds

The volatility of the BSE500 Index is reflected in equity and mutual fund assets

Equities and mutual funds are proving popular among retail investors

Fixed-income funds continue to dominate the mutual fund market

Bond investments are set to follow GDP rates, albeit at a lower level

HNW INVESTMENT PREFERENCES

Indian HNW individuals allocate over 40% of their portfolios outside of traditional liquid asset classes

Direct property remains important, but is losing some of its shine due to lower returns

Private equity investment is increasingly popular among HNW individuals

Offshore investment is of secondary importance to Indian HNW individuals

Indian HNW individuals use offshore centers for geographic diversification and to protect against currency volatility

The US and the UAE account for almost 70% of offshore bookings in India

Taxation is relatively moderate in India, and is thus a limited driver for offshore holdings

The government faces an ongoing battle with tax evasion

APPENDIX

Abbreviations and acronyms

Supplementary data

Definitions

Affluent

Demat accounts

Domicile

Double tax convention (DTC)

FATCA

HNW

Liquid assets

Mass affluent

Onshore

Residency

Exchange of information

Tax information exchange agreement (TIEA)

Methodology

Verdict Financial's 2016 Global Wealth Managers Survey

Verdict Financial's Global Wealth Model methodology

Global Retail Investments Analytics methodology

Exchange rates

Bibliography

Further reading

About Verdict Financial

Disclaimer

Table

Table 1: India: tax rates by income band, 2016-17

Table 2: India: adult population segmented by affluent category and asset band (000s), 2011?15

Table 3: India: adult population segmented by affluent category and asset band (000s), 2016f?20f

Table 4: India: total onshore liquid assets segmented by affluent category and asset band ($bn), 2011?15

Table 5: India: total onshore liquid assets segmented by affluent category and asset band ($bn), 2016f?20f

Table 6: Euro-US dollar exchange rate, December 31, 2014 and December 31, 2015

Figures

Figure 1: Affluent individuals accounted for less than 1% of the total Indian adult population in 2015

Figure 2: Affluent Indians hold over 90% of liquid assets

Figure 3: NRIs account for an increasing percentage of onshore deposits

Figure 4: The Indian retail savings and investments market will continue to grow strongly to 2020

Figure 5: Deposits are forecast to increase their share of the retail savings and investments market to 2020

Figure 6: Deposits and equities will be the major drivers of growth in the Indian retail savings and investments market to 2020

Figure 7: Deposit growth rates will continue to outpace real GDP until 2020

Figure 8: The Indian stock market is dominated by the finance sector

Figure 9: Direct equity and mutual fund investment is strongly correlated to the performance of the BSE500

Figure 10: Indian mutual funds are predominantly debt-oriented

Figure 11: Retail bond growth will continue to disappoint, lagging behind real GDP growth

Figure 12: Direct property accounts for over a third of Indian HNW illiquid investments

Figure 13: Indian HNW offshore allocation is broadly in line with the global average

Figure 14: Geographic diversification and currency volatility are the key drivers for offshore investment among Indian HNW individuals

Figure 15: The US and the UAE form the most important offshore booking centers for Indian HNW clients

Figure 16: India has a considerable number of TIEAs and DTCs in force, and aims to expand these over the coming years

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