At the Hubbis India Wealth Management Forum 2026, Dominic Volek, Group Head of Private Clients and Member of the Executive Committee at Henley & Partners, explored the growing place of residence, citizenship and education planning in the affairs of India’s wealthy families.
Indian wealth has become steadily more international. Children study and work overseas, family businesses operate across markets, assets sit in different jurisdictions and succession increasingly has a cross-border dimension. These changes are bringing questions of residence, mobility and education into discussions that may previously have centred on investments, tax, trusts or estate planning.
For many families, the immediate objective is flexibility. A second residence can improve mobility or give the family somewhere it can move if circumstances change. Education decisions can be planned with a child’s eventual career in mind. Where relocation is genuinely contemplated, tax and lifestyle considerations may also come into play. The appropriate answer depends on what the family is trying to achieve.
Key Takeaways
Global Indian Families Are Driving Demand: International businesses, overseas education, cross-border assets and family members living in different countries are making residence and citizenship planning more relevant.
Optionality Is A Major Client Objective: Many high net worth (HNW) families want additional residence rights or mobility without any immediate plan to leave India.
Mobility Remains A Practical Concern: European residence programmes can give Indian nationals easier access to the Schengen Area, while other programmes offer different residence or citizenship benefits.
A Second Residence Can Provide Contingency: Geopolitical and policy uncertainty is encouraging some families to establish alternatives before they are forced to make decisions quickly.
Education Requires Longer-Term Thinking: Admission to an overseas university is only part of the equation. Families also need to consider whether children can remain, work and build careers after graduating.
Tax Benefits Depend On Actual Circumstances: Holding another residence or citizenship does not by itself alter tax residence; genuine relocation and the relevant domestic rules matter.
The Programme Has To Fit The Client: Henley & Partners advises across more than 60 residence and citizenship options, with the choice shaped by mobility, education, relocation, succession and other family priorities.
Advisers Have A Role In Starting The Conversation: Private bankers, wealth managers, lawyers, trustees and family offices are often well placed to identify when residence or citizenship questions have become relevant.
A Broader Wealth Planning Conversation
Volek used Henley & Partners’ “wheel of wealth planning” to show where residence and citizenship fit within a client’s wider affairs.
The presentation placed them alongside investment strategy, tax planning, trusts and estates, succession, philanthropy, retirement and risk management. For families whose lives already span several countries, the connection is increasingly practical. Where someone can live, work or study can affect decisions elsewhere in the wealth plan.
Henley & Partners focuses on this part of the advisory process. The firm has more than 70 offices worldwide, has advised over 30,000 clients and works across more than 60 residence and citizenship options. Its private client services also include real estate, education and concierge support.
India is one of the firm’s major source markets. Volek linked that demand to the way Indian families themselves have changed.
“Three generations ago, families were thinking regionally, two generations ago nationally, and now they are thinking globally,” he said.
That change can be seen in families whose founders remain in India while children study or establish careers abroad, or whose operating businesses and investments extend across several markets. Volek also sees movement in the other direction, with some younger Indians returning after studying and working overseas because of the opportunities available at home.
Why Families Are Looking At Their Options
There is rarely a single trigger. Henley & Partners’ presentation divided the drivers into “push” and “pull” factors. Tax and policy reform, geopolitical volatility, succession issues and next-generation needs can prompt families to reassess their position. Attractive residence programmes, predictable jurisdictions, education systems and better mobility create reasons to act.
A conversation might begin with education because a child is heading overseas. Another family may be dealing with heirs in several countries. Policy changes can expose weaknesses in an existing structure, while business expansion can create practical questions about where family members need the right to spend time.
These are familiar issues for private banks, independent wealth managers, family offices and lawyers. Volek said Henley & Partners is often brought in when one of those wider client conversations reaches the point where specialist residence or citizenship advice is needed.
Mobility And A Plan B
For many Indian clients, Volek said the attraction lies in having another option available without committing to an immediate move.
“The majority of our clients in India are interested in the option,” he said. “In most cases, it is not about relocating or leaving India.”
Mobility is one reason. Indian passport holders can face visa requirements across a number of major destinations, making European residence programmes particularly relevant for some families.
Volek highlighted programmes in markets including Portugal, Greece, Italy, Latvia and Malta. Residence issued by a Schengen country can generally facilitate short-stay travel elsewhere in the 29-country Schengen Area, subject to the applicable rules. It does not carry the same rights to settle or work throughout Europe as European Union citizenship.
Residence and citizenship also need to be distinguished carefully for Indian nationals. India does not permit simultaneous Indian and foreign citizenship, while Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status is not dual citizenship.
Geopolitical uncertainty gives the discussion another dimension. Volek said Henley & Partners had seen particularly strong activity through its Dubai office amid tensions in the Middle East. Those clients were often securing alternatives rather than preparing to move immediately.
“If you have the financial capacity, it makes no sense to have one country or one jurisdiction that you are limited to,” he said. “It is a concentration risk that HNW individuals can avoid.”
Putting the arrangements in place early also leaves the family with more control over the decision. Programmes change, requirements can become more demanding and waiting until a move is urgent can narrow the available choices.
Education And The Next Generation
Education is a major source of demand from India, particularly where families are looking at the US.
Henley & Partners’ education advisory team works with families considering schools and universities across the US, UK, Switzerland and other parts of Europe, as well as Singapore, Dubai and Australia.
Volek encouraged families to think past the admissions process. A student visa may allow a child to complete a degree, but the family may also want that child to gain work experience and establish a career in the same market.
“The mistake a lot of families make is that they send their kids on student visas,” he said. “They go to study and get a degree, but then it can be very difficult to stay on.”
For suitable families, Henley & Partners considers whether an immigration route can be planned alongside education. Volek used the US EB-5 immigrant investor programme as an example. EB-5 can provide a route to permanent residence where the investment and job-creation requirements are met; any eventual citizenship would require a separate naturalisation process.
Availability is another consideration. At the time of the forum, the FY2026 allocation of unreserved EB-5 visas chargeable to India had been used, while certain reserved categories remained current. It illustrates how quickly the practical position can change and why families need to assess the route available when they are actually ready to proceed.
Tax, Lifestyle And Legacy
Tax enters the discussion mainly where a client is open to physically relocating.
Volek pointed to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Singapore and Hong Kong as jurisdictions that can be attractive to wealthy international families. Acquiring residence gives someone the right to move; the tax outcome depends on whether they do so and on the residence rules that apply to their circumstances.
That qualification is important in India. Individual tax residence is determined through several statutory tests and exceptions, rather than a blanket 183-day rule.
Some families are influenced by lifestyle as well. Climate, air quality, healthcare, community and eventual retirement plans can affect where they want to establish a base. Volek said some larger business owners also choose to move family members abroad while continuing to commute themselves.
Legacy and estate planning become relevant once family members, businesses and assets are spread across countries. Residence rights may then form another part of the preparations for how the family operates across generations.
“While you are building diversification in the portfolio, you can also build diversification in terms of residence and potential citizenship,” Volek said.
Finding The Right Programme
Well-known programmes tend to dominate the conversation, but the available choices are much wider.
Henley & Partners works across more than 60 residence and citizenship options and describes its approach as programme agnostic. Volek said the starting point is the client’s situation and what the family wants the additional residence or citizenship to achieve.
That can produce very different answers. A family looking for easier Schengen travel has different priorities from one planning a child’s long-term future in the US. Someone preparing to relocate will need to consider matters that are largely irrelevant to a client seeking a contingency residence.
The programmes themselves also evolve. Portugal’s Golden Visa, for example, no longer accepts direct real-estate acquisition as a qualifying investment, although Henley & Partners separately provides real-estate services in the country. Other qualifying routes remain available.
Volek’s advice was to avoid beginning with whichever programme happens to be best known and instead establish what the client needs before narrowing the choices.
Bringing Advisers Into The Discussion
Henley & Partners works with advisers through referrals, joint mandates and meetings where its specialists sit alongside the client’s existing advisory team. The presentation stressed that Henley’s role is intended to complement the adviser rather than take over the wider relationship.
Some advisers prefer to introduce the client and leave Henley & Partners to handle the specialist work. Others remain closely involved because the residence decision is being considered alongside tax, wealth structuring, succession or another part of an existing mandate.
“We want to be a resource to you and your organisation when this topic comes up,” Volek said.
There is a commercial reason for advisers to pay attention as well. Henley & Partners’ presentation argued that these conversations can strengthen trust and retention and can lead into related areas of advice, including succession, structuring and real assets.
Volek finished with a simple warning. Wealthy clients commonly have relationships with several banks and advisers, so ignoring the subject does not mean it disappears.
“If they are not having the discussion with you, they will be having it with someone else,” he said.
Residence, citizenship and education planning will not be relevant to every Indian family. For those whose businesses, children and assets are already international, however, it is becoming a practical part of planning what comes next.