How Family Offices in India Can Plan Global Mobility for the Next Generation
Most family offices in India have strong advisors for investments, tax and compliance. Yet one of the most important questions is often ignored until it becomes urgent: what is the plan for the children?
In family after family, we now see the 3rd and 4th generation wanting to take their school and university education out of India. Many of them also wish to obtain residency of another country. These questions are rarely discussed when the children are young, which is exactly when planning is most powerful. By the time the family sits down to think about it, the child is 16 or 17, the applications are due, and decisions are made in a hurry.
Global mobility is not running away from the family business
In many families, the idea of a child studying abroad or holding foreign residency raises an unspoken worry: will the next generation drift away from the family business?
We encourage families to see it differently. Global mobility, planned well, is not a family member leaving the business. It is a strategy to expand it. A next-generation member with international education, global networks and residency or citizenship options can:
- Open new markets and build overseas partnerships for the family business.
- Help create a global investment portfolio and new asset classes beyond India.
- Support tax planning across jurisdictions, within the law.
- Give the family access to better banking, insurance, healthcare and lifestyle options.
- Protect the family with a second home base if circumstances change.
Many of the most successful business families in the world have used this approach. They send the next generation out to learn, build and connect, and bring that value back into the family enterprise.
The gap we see most often
Education, residency, citizenship, cross-border wealth and succession are usually handled by different people, or not handled at all. The result is a familiar pattern.
A child turns 15 or 16 and the family starts thinking about studying abroad. The country is chosen first, often based on rankings, peer influence or what a relative’s child did. The program comes second. Nobody asks where this child is likely to live and work at 30, what visa pathway the course leads to, or how the funding should be structured under Indian foreign exchange rules.
The outcome is the wrong program, the wrong country and the wrong timing. Students struggle in courses that do not suit them. Graduates find no work pathway after the degree. Transfers and restarts cost years and money. Most of all, there is unnecessary stress for the child and for the parents.
None of this is inevitable. Almost all of it is avoidable with earlier advice.
How Ajmera Law International advises UHNI families and family offices
Education and settlement planning. We look at the child first, then the country. We help families choose the right destination, the right program and the immigration pathway that follows, whether that is a student visa leading to a work visa or a longer-term residency route. We map this against the family’s wider business and wealth plans, so that a decision made at 17 does not create a problem at 25.
Residency and citizenship options. For families who want global flexibility for their children, we advise on residency and citizenship by investment programs, EB-5 and other investor routes, and European and Middle East options, including the compliance side of each. The objective is not to collect passports. It is to give the next generation real choices and the family a genuine global footprint.
Global portfolio and business expansion. We work alongside the family’s CA, wealth manager and business advisors to see how overseas residency, foreign entities and international investments can support the expansion of the family business and the creation of a global asset base.
FEMA and cross-border compliance. Funding education abroad, buying property overseas or investing in a foreign program must be structured within FEMA, the Liberalised Remittance Scheme and related regulations. We make sure the money moves correctly, properly documented and defensible, so a good plan does not become a compliance problem later.
Succession and inheritance planning. When children become residents or citizens of other countries, and assets sit in more than one jurisdiction, inheritance questions become complex. Some countries have estate or inheritance tax rules that surprise Indian families. We help structure wills, trusts and succession arrangements that work across borders, and we advise on documents such as the Living Will and Advance Medical Directive so that personal wishes are protected as well.
GIFT City and structured vehicles. For families looking at international structuring within India’s framework, we advise on GIFT City IFSC options as part of the broader plan.
Why timing matters?
The single most useful thing we tell families is this: come to us earlier.
When we are consulted while the child is still in school, or before the family has committed to a country or a program, we have far more options to offer. We can shape the academic path, plan the funding, prepare the residency route and align it all with the family business in the right sequence. When we are consulted after a wrong decision has been made, we can still help, but the choices are narrower and the cost, in money, time and emotional strain, is higher.
A wider future for the family
Good planning for the next generation is not about controlling their future. It is about widening it. When global mobility is treated as part of the family’s business and wealth strategy, it protects the family, builds a global portfolio, supports tax planning and gives the children real options.
With offices in Ahmedabad, USA, Canada and UAE, and a third-generation legal practice that has served over 30,000 clients across more than 20 countries, Ajmera Law International provides one coordinated view for single and multi-family offices.
If you are a UHNI family or a family office thinking about your children’s education abroad, their residency options or the succession of your wealth, we would be glad to speak with you. A first conversation costs little. A wrong decision costs a great deal.
Prashant Ajmera
Founder and Advocate, Ajmera Law International
info@ajmeralaw.com | +91 9974253030 | www.ajmeralaw.com
Prashant Ajmera is a Canadian citizen since 1997, NRI sicne 1988 and the Founder and Advocate of Ajmera Law International, a cross-border and global mobility law firm based in Ahmedabad with a presence in Cabada, USA and UAE. A third-generation legal practitioner with a B.Sc, LLM and ICSA (UK), he advises UHNI families, family offices and NRIs on residency and citizenship by investment, EB-5, FEMA compliance, GIFT City and cross-border succession planning. He has authored “Millionaires On the Move” and serves as Vice President of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC), Ahmedabad and founder of Organ Donation Trust – OneIndiaOneLaw.org
