Why HNIs And Family Offices Are Looking Beyond Listed Equities

Family offices have always valued exclusive investment opportunities. But with the size and complexity of their portfolios growing, they are increasingly looking beyond traditional investments and are adopting a more diversified, institutional approach to managing their wealth.

A 2025 EY study shows that Indian family offices grew from 45 in 2018 to about 300 in 2024. Another EY report highlights that India has around 13,000 ultra high networth individuals (UHNI) families with wealth above $30 million and this is expected to grow to 19,000 by 2028. However, only around 2-3 per cent of them are running formal single family office structures currently.

The three factors that increasingly matter are:

1. Diversification

2. Access to Growth

3. Value creation over different time horizons

Many families already have a great deal of their wealth invested in their own business. Thus, investing in other businesses, industries and asset classes is an important part of long-term wealth planning.

Says Kresha Gupta, CA, and director and fund manager, Steptrade Capital, an investment management firm: “Family offices can invest in private equity, pre-IPO, and growth-stage investment stages of companies that may not yet be open to public market investors. This is especially true in India where the private market ecosystem is expanding rapidly. Family offices can often tie up capital for many years. This makes them structurally better suited for investments that may take time for value creation to play out.”

This is driving interest in alternative investment funds (AIFs), pre-initial public offering (IPO) opportunities, unlisted businesses, and growth-stage companies.

One clear sign of this shift is the growing AIF industry. According to data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), commitments to AIFs stood at Rs 16.94 lakh crore as of March 2026 with investments made at Rs 6.76 lakh crore.

The interest in private markets is more than simply the search for higher returns. For investors, it’s about access and choice, too.

Says Gupta: “Listed markets provide liquidity, transparency and price discovery. With private and unlisted investments, you have the chance to get in on a business earlier, sometimes long before it goes public.”

According to an EY-Julius Baer study, Indian family offices are diversifying beyond assets and moving into global equities, real estate, private equity, venture capital, and other options. But it’s a careful shift, not an all-out move from traditional assets. At the time, 57 per cent of family offices surveyed had less than 10 per cent of their portfolios in private equity or venture capital. Looking beyond listed equities does not mean abandoning listed markets. Most portfolios will still contain public equities. They provide liquidity and access to familiar companies. Different investments have different roles.

Adds Gupta: “Private investments can offer exposure to companies at different stages of their growth. The point is not to replace one asset class with another, but to see where each fits into the portfolio.”

This is especially the case for entrepreneurs and business families. A good chunk of their money could already be stuck in the business they own. That business may be the source of their growing wealth but it can also bring concentration risk. Spreading some money across businesses, industries and asset types can then become an important part of long-term planning.

“We are also seeing family offices get more organised in making these decisions. Their role is increasingly evolving from wealth protection to include managing, strategic asset allocation, variety and planning for the next generation,” says Gupta.

That shifts the conversation on investing.

Examining each chance individually, the focus turns to: Does the investor need to be liquid? How long can money be invested? Where is the present concentration? How high is the risk? Does the new investment really enhance the portfolio?

In that way the change is not really from listed equities to investments. It is from picking investments to creating a carefully-planned portfolio.

“As India’s wealth system grows, high net worth individuals and family offices have more choices than before. Public markets will still be a part of this, but private markets, AIFs and growth-stage companies can increasingly play supporting roles,” says Gupta.

In the end, the question may not be about finding the one wealth-creation chance. It may be about creating a portfolio that gives investors the chance to reach opportunities while staying in line with their needs for liquidity, their willingness to take risks and their long-term aims.