Chief Executive Officer — Wealth Franchise

The mandate

A once-profitable wealth business has reached an inflection point. Client assets have continued to rise, yet revenue yield and contribution margin have fallen for six consecutive quarters. Relationship managers are spending too much time navigating product exceptions, affluent clients receive service designed for a private-bank cost base, and the investment shelf has grown without an equivalent discipline around profitability or suitability. The parent group has authorised a new chief executive seat so that the franchise is managed as one business rather than as a collection of sales regions, product desks and shared-service dependencies.

The incoming Chief Executive Officer will take charge of approximately ₹3,000 crore in assets under oversight and a network of roughly 450 employees and material partners. The remit includes advisory and discretionary propositions, distribution economics, relationship-manager productivity, investment governance, client service, technology priorities and the commercial interfaces with lending, insurance and asset-management businesses elsewhere in the group. It does not invite indiscriminate cost removal. The board expects the appointee to decide where high-touch advice creates defensible value, where service should be standardised, and which products should no longer consume capital or management attention.

Three questions require early judgement. First, whether the firm can restore pricing authority without destabilising its most valuable client relationships. Second, whether its current segmentation reflects actual client economics rather than historical labels. Third, how much of the operating model should remain proprietary when credible external platforms can provide research, execution or administration at lower unit cost. The CEO will place these choices into one coherent plan, establish the investment required, and make the consequences legible to the board.

This is a visible enterprise leadership role, not stewardship of a mature annuity. It calls for an executive who can challenge entrenched producer privileges, protect suitability standards while changing incentives, and reconnect front-office promises with the service capacity behind them. Success will be recognised in the quality of earnings, not simply in gross inflows.

Why this seat is open

The role is both new and urgent. A board-led portfolio review found that responsibility for the wealth franchise was dispersed among regional leaders, product manufacturers and group functions. That arrangement worked while markets lifted income broadly; it has become untenable under fee compression and more demanding client expectations. The group CEO currently arbitrates decisions that should sit with a full-time business owner. The board intends to appoint within six to eight weeks, while maintaining existing reporting lines until the new CEO has completed a disciplined organisation review.

What you will own

• Recut the client proposition across emerging affluent, high-net-worth, ultra-high-net-worth and family-office segments, using observable service cost, relationship depth and willingness to pay rather than inherited classifications.
• Present a three-year economic plan that reconciles assets, net new money, fee yield, credit contribution, adviser capacity, technology spend and risk-adjusted profit by segment.
• Reset pricing architecture, discount authorities and exception governance; personally sponsor the treatment of legacy arrangements where commercial value and client fairness pull in different directions.
• Simplify the investment shelf and strengthen the product-approval forum so that performance, liquidity, concentration, conflicts and post-sale outcomes influence what relationship teams may recommend.
• Redesign relationship-manager portfolios and incentives around durable household value, quality of advice and compliant growth, rather than gross sales activity alone.
• Decide the future operating model for custody, research, portfolio reporting and client onboarding, including make-or-buy choices and any partner renegotiations.
• Build a leadership team capable of integrating investments, distribution, operations, risk and digital delivery; remove overlapping forums and clarify which decisions belong to the CEO, product heads and control functions.
• Represent the franchise to the group board, regulators and selected strategic clients when changes to proposition or service require direct executive confidence.

The first 12 months

During the first 60 days, establish a clean economic view of the franchise. Reconcile assets and revenue to household, adviser, product and service tier; identify the clients whose apparent value changes materially after full service cost; and review all material pricing exceptions. Meet a deliberately selected group of clients, former clients, advisers, investment specialists and operations colleagues. The resulting diagnosis should name the few structural causes of margin erosion rather than repeat a broad efficiency agenda.

By the end of month four, agree with the board which client segments and capabilities merit investment. Publish new commercial guardrails, settle leadership accountabilities and launch two controlled tests: one on service-tier redesign and another on adviser capacity or pricing. Any proposal to withdraw a product or alter a longstanding client arrangement must include conduct review and a defensible communication plan.

Months five to nine should convert those choices into operating change. Rebalance adviser books, remove low-value process steps, renegotiate priority external services, and introduce household-level profitability and client-outcome reporting. The digital roadmap should target moments that matter to clients and advisers—onboarding, portfolio visibility, advice preparation and exception resolution—not a generic channel migration target.

By year end, the board expects evidence that improvement is repeatable: annualised cost-to-income lower by at least 500 basis points against the agreed baseline; net new money positive in the chosen priority segments; pricing leakage reduced by at least 25%; adviser capacity increased without a deterioration in complaints, suitability exceptions or regretted client attrition; and a funded two-year product and technology plan.

What the board will measure

• Quality of net new money, including source, segment, product concentration and twelve-month retention, rather than one closing-period inflow figure.
• Improvement in revenue yield and contribution margin after normalising for market movements.
• Reduction in ungoverned pricing exceptions and the proportion of remaining exceptions with an explicit economic rationale and expiry date.
• Relationship-manager capacity, time spent with priority clients, and dispersion between top, median and underperforming books.
• Client retention and advocacy within the segments selected for growth, accompanied by stable or improving complaint and suitability indicators.
• Delivery of product rationalisation, partner decisions and technology milestones within the capital envelope approved by the board.
• Strength and diversity of the executive bench, with credible successors identified for distribution, investments and operations.

The person

You have led a wealth, private-banking, securities, asset-management distribution or closely comparable regulated franchise through a material change in economics. Your experience must extend beyond selling into favourable markets. The board will look for evidence that you have changed a proposition, challenged a producer-led culture, reallocated investment and improved profit quality while retaining the clients and advisers who mattered.

At least 28 years of progressive experience is expected, including direct accountability for a substantial P&L or asset pool and leadership of no fewer than 450 people across front office, product and enabling functions. You understand the different economics of advised, discretionary and execution-led models; can interrogate product suitability and conflicts without displacing independent risk ownership; and can explain technology choices in commercial terms.

Your leadership style combines intellectual honesty with proportion. You are prepared to close an attractive-looking activity when its full economics or client outcomes do not withstand scrutiny, but you do not use transformation language to avoid the patient work of improving a core franchise. You can earn credibility with successful relationship leaders while changing the conditions under which they operate.

Compensation and terms

The expected fixed compensation is ₹5.0–7.5 crore, supplemented by a performance variable and long-term incentive. Final structure will reflect relevant experience, current remuneration and the confirmed scope. Variable measures will balance profitable growth, client outcomes, control performance and organisational health. Appointment is permanent and based in Mumbai on a hybrid working pattern. Reasonable notice periods, including up to six months, can be accommodated.

Confidentiality

The client’s identity will be disclosed only after an initial assessment of fit and acceptance of reciprocal confidentiality obligations. Sector, scale and situation have been deliberately expressed as a composite; candidates must not treat them as clues to a particular institution or contact possible employers speculatively.