Private Family Trust Planning and Investment Management
A private family trust lets you decide who receives your wealth, when, and on what terms, without probate, court delays or public disclosure. Setting one up is a legal job. Making sure the money inside it is invested sensibly for the next twenty or forty years is ours.
Fortune Wealth manages the investment side of private family trusts for Mumbai and NRI families: equity, mutual funds, PMS, AIFs, bonds and fixed deposits, all held in the trust’s own name and structured around what the trust deed says it has to do.
What a private family trust does for your family
A private family trust is a legal arrangement under the Indian Trusts Act, 1882. You, as the settlor, transfer assets to trustees, who hold and manage them for the beneficiaries you name. The trust deed sets the rules: who benefits, how much, at what age or milestone, and who takes over as trustee later.
Families use it to:
- Pass on wealth without probate. Assets already belong to the trust, so nothing has to be proved through a court after you’re gone.
- Keep matters private. A trust deed is not a public document the way a probated will can become.
- Ring-fence assets. Assets properly settled in an irrevocable trust are separated from the personal liabilities of the settlor and beneficiaries.
- Control timing. Release money for a child’s education at 18, a home at 30, or a monthly income for a parent, rather than everything at once.
- Reduce family disputes. Clear written terms leave far less to argue about than an informal understanding or a single will.
- Plan business succession. Promoter shareholdings can sit in a trust so control passes in an orderly way.
For the full background, read our complete guide to family trusts in India and how a private family trust works, including tax rules.
Where Fortune Wealth fits in
A trust has two halves, and families often focus on only the first.
| The legal structure | The investment portfolio | |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | Trust deed, type of trust, stamp duty, registration, PAN, tax filings | What the corpus is invested in, how it produces income, how it is reviewed |
| Who handles it | Your lawyer and chartered accountant | Fortune Wealth, working alongside them |
| What goes wrong if neglected | Disputes, unintended tax, an invalid deed | A well-drafted trust sitting in a savings account, or a portfolio that can’t meet its own payouts |
We don’t draft trust deeds or give legal or tax opinions. We make sure the trust’s money is invested in a way that matches the deed, and we coordinate with your lawyer and CA so the investment plan and the legal structure tell the same story.
Our family trust wealth management service
1. Investment policy built from the trust deed
Before any money is placed, we read the deed with you. Who are the beneficiaries? Are distributions fixed or at the trustees’ discretion? Is there a date by which a large payout is due? The answers decide how much must stay liquid, how much can be invested for the long term, and how much risk the trust can carry.
2. Asset allocation across the full product range
Through our long-standing partnership with Motilal Oswal and direct fund-house relationships, a trust portfolio can draw on:
- Stocks and direct equity
- Mutual funds and SIPs
- Portfolio Management Services (PMS) for larger corpuses
- Alternate Investment Funds (AIF) where the trust and its trustees qualify
- Bonds and fixed deposits for income and capital stability
3. Corpus management for distributions
Most trusts have to pay something out: school fees, a monthly allowance, a parent’s medical costs. We build an income and liquidity layer so those payouts don’t force the trustees to sell long-term holdings at a bad moment.
4. Account opening in the trust’s name
Investments are held by the trust, not by an individual trustee. We handle the paperwork: trust PAN, trust deed, trustee KYC, authorised signatory details and the trust’s bank account, for each product the portfolio uses.
5. Reporting trustees and CAs can use
Consolidated statements across all holdings, capital gains reports and income summaries in a format your CA can file from. Trustees can see what the trust owns at any time.
6. Periodic reviews and trustee transitions
We review the portfolio against the deed at regular intervals and whenever something changes: a beneficiary comes of age, a trustee steps down, or the family adds assets. When trusteeship passes to the next generation, we walk the new trustees through the portfolio so continuity isn’t lost.
How the trust’s structure shapes its portfolio
The type of trust affects how its income is taxed, and that changes which investments make sense inside it.
- Specific (determinate) trust: each beneficiary’s share is fixed in the deed. Income is generally taxed in line with the beneficiaries’ own positions, which can make income-producing assets more efficient.
- Discretionary trust: trustees decide who receives what. Income is generally taxed at the maximum marginal rate, so growth-oriented and tax-efficient holdings usually carry more weight.
- Revocable trust: income is typically treated as the settlor’s own, so most of the tax advantage falls away.
Your CA confirms the exact tax position for your trust. We then build the portfolio around it. Our private family trust guide works through an example.
How we work with trust families
- First conversation. What the trust is for, who it protects, and what stage it’s at: still an idea, being drafted, or already registered. No products are discussed.
- Deed and holdings review. We read the trust deed (or the draft) and every existing investment the family plans to settle.
- Investment policy. A written allocation with a liquidity plan for expected distributions, shared with you and, if you wish, your lawyer and CA.
- Account setup and transfer. Accounts opened in the trust’s name; existing holdings moved in or new money invested.
- Ongoing review. Regular portfolio reviews, rebalancing where the plan calls for it, and reporting at year-end for the trust’s tax filing.
Who this suits, and who it does not
This suits business-owning and HNI families planning succession, parents who want to provide for children or a dependant with special needs on defined terms, NRI families with Indian assets they want held and managed in India, and families that already have a trust whose money isn’t working hard enough.
It does not suit someone looking for a trust purely to avoid tax, or a family with modest assets where a well-drafted will and correct nominations would do the job at a fraction of the cost. If that’s you, we’ll say so in the first meeting. Our article on estate planning vs a will explains the difference.
Why families choose Fortune Wealth
- 25+ years helping Mumbai families invest.
- One relationship for every asset class the trust holds, instead of separate brokers, distributors and bank RMs.
- AMFI-registered mutual fund distributor (ARN 146822), with access to the Motilal Oswal platform for equity, PMS and AIF.
- We work with your advisors, not around them. Your lawyer and CA stay in charge of the legal and tax side.
- Offices in Kandivali East and Vile Parle West, with meetings at your home or office, or over video for NRI families.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Start with the deed, or the idea of one
Bring the trust deed if you have one, or a rough list of what you want the trust to hold and who it should protect. The first conversation is about your family, not products.
