Why Indian family offices are building out CIO and CFO teams — and what it means for hiring

Indian family offices have typically run lean; incorporating a trusted advisor, an accountant and maybe a lawyer on retainer and a Principal who made every call. But it seems the trend for that type of model is disappearing.

The number of family offices in India has grown fast, from around 45 in 2018 to nearly 300 by 2024–25, tracking the country’s expanding ultra-high-net-worth population, which is now over 19,000 individuals and projected to pass 25,000 by 2031. India is also now home to more than 200 billionaires, controlling close to US$1 trillion in wealth between them.

The 2026 Indian Family Office Playbook from EY and Julius Baer puts a number on what recruiters in this space have been seeing for a while: more than 70% of family offices now say they need governance-led processes – from dashboards to performance metrics and formal audit trails. And the professionals being brought in to build that infrastructure are increasingly dedicated Chief Investment Officers, Chief Financial Officers and risk specialists rather than purely outsourced advisors.

For anyone hiring into a family office right now, the change has an impact. Here’s what’s driving it and what it means in practice.

The report is clear about the change in mindset: family offices are moving from relationship driven investing to process backed decision making. This doesn’t mean they’re becoming less relationship based, it’s more that portfolios are becoming too large and complicated for one person to manage.

Scale is the underlying driver. Mid and large Indian family offices collectively manage an estimated INR70,000 crore in assets, a figure projected to grow 1.5 times at a 14% CAGR over the next three years. The trend on where that capital is going tells the same story – between 40% and 45% of allocations across many Indian family offices now sit in alternatives – private equity, venture capital, private credit, AIFs, REITs and InvITs, with dedicated PE/VC allocations of 10 – 20% or more. Across the wider market, PE and VC investment into India totalled US$183.5 billion across more than 4,000 deals between 2023 and the first quarter of 2026. Therefore, portfolios are complex enough to need full-time management.

“We’re seeing more family office CIO and CFO briefs land on our desk in the last two years than in the five before that and the briefs are longer and more detailed each time. The first conversation is just as likely to be about governance experience now as much as track record.” – Izzy, Co-Founder of Eagle Private.

The report lists the practical reasons families give for building internal teams rather than leaning further on outsourced managers:

• Need for more control
• Faster decision making
• Greater flexibility
• Reduced fee layers
• Formal investment policy statements and structured review processes

It’s not about distrust of external advisors, but more about speed and ownership. An outsourced CIO model works when a family office is small and its portfolio is straightforward; but this can become a bottleneck once decisions need to happen quickly across multi-jurisdictions.

The majority of these family office hires are coming from investment banks, hedge funds, private equity firms and other institutional investors. Family offices are now competing directly with the institutions that originally trained this talent, and increasingly winning over that competition, because the mandate on offer is attractive (broader remit, closer proximity to the principal, less internal bureaucracy being key factors).

“The candidates who make this move are chasing scope – a chance to work across private equity, credit and direct deals for one principal rather than owning a single asset class. It’s a different kind of mandate, and it’s pulling people who’d never previously have considered a family office seat.” – Rupert, Co-Founder of Eagle Private.

The professionalisation trend runs wider than CIOs and CFOs. The report points to family offices also building out or engaging:

• Risk professionals
• Tax specialists
• Cybersecurity advisors
• Forensics and compliance support

There is a bigger pattern being observed: family offices are starting to look more like proper institutions with formal structures being put in place and written family constitutions, investment committees and family councils becoming more common. Part of this is generational: around 20% of India’s high-net-worth individuals are now under 40, many of them globally educated and directly involved in investment decisions, which is pushing families toward more formal structures that can support hands-on, next-generation principals. As family offices grow, they stop needing just one CIO but require a whole team.

A few practical takeaways for principals and candidates:

• The bar for CIO/CFO mandates is rising. Families aren’t just looking for investment acumen, they want someone who can build the governance infrastructure (IPS documents, reporting cadence, audit trails) from scratch.
• Institutional experience is now a genuine asset. The days of family offices only hiring from within trusted personal networks are fading, at least at the senior investment level.
• Retention looks different here. The report frames professionalisation partly as a tool to attract next-generation talent, meaning family offices are increasingly thinking about career progression and mandate breadth as part of the pitch rather than simply compensation.

“If you’re a family office thinking about your first dedicated CIO or CFO hire, or a candidate weighing up a move from institutional finance, this is exactly the conversation we’re having every day. Get in touch and we’ll talk through what a mandate like this actually looks like.” – Izzy, Co-Founder of Eagle Private.

Contact Eagle Private to discuss your requirements today.

Insights in this piece are drawn from the 2026 Indian Family Office Playbook: Now, Next and Beyond, published by EY and Julius Baer, August 2026.