Shortreads

MUMBAI: Raghav Gupta left his cushy job as director of private banking at Citi to join ASK Wealth Advisors as a managing partner in August last year. He now advises wealthy clients, some of them twenty-something startup founders who became multimillionaires overnight by selling their companies, on investing their money wisely. For the Mumbai-based boutique wealth management firm that manages about Rs 35,000 crore of some 700 families, business has been robust, growing 35-40% year-on-year.

With a slowdown in hiring in investment banking, equities and debt, bankers are jumping boats to become wealth managers where crore-plus salaries and rewards like luxury cars are awaiting the best. Private bankers are in demand at companies like ASK Wealth, as the list of India’s multimillionaires grows at a fast clip and the newly rich shop for professional help to manage their wealth.