Affluent Indians are planning to reshape their portfolios over the next 12 months by incorporating alternative investments and managed solutions, including multi-asset strategies, according to HSBC’s 2025 Affluent Investor Snapshot.
Based on data gathered from 10,797 individual investors in 12 markets, the study showed a growing appetite for diversification across asset classes and geographies.
For affluent Indians, managed investments (such as mutual funds), stocks, and gold currently dominate their portfolios. Notably, over the past 12 months, gold witnessed the highest increase in allocation, followed by alternative investments.
For Indian affluent investors, gold allocations saw the highest increase, from 8% to 15% over the past year. The study further said that globally, half of affluent investors plan to invest in gold over the next year, with nearly 3 in 10 expressing interest in accessing the metal through tokenised formats.
Globally, younger investors, especially Gen Z, are leading this shift, having tripled their allocations to alternative assets over the past 12 months. Overall, 5 in 10 affluent investors globally expect to have alternative investments in their portfolios within the next year, twice the current level of ownership, with 3 in 10 saying they will have private markets exposure.
Sandeep Batra, Head of International Wealth and Personal Banking at HSBC India, said, “There is a notable shift among affluent individuals in India toward a more strategic approach to portfolio management. There is a growing emphasis on making money work harder over extended time horizons. This evolving mindset is driving affluent investors to diversify actively across various asset classes, including alternatives, and to explore opportunities beyond their domestic markets to both grow and safeguard their wealth.”
Indian affluent investors tend to hold lower cash levels compared to their global counterparts. At just 15%, affluent investors in India now have the smallest average allocation to cash in Asia, with no clear consensus on changes for the next 12 months.
Globally, once more, younger generations are leading the move out of cash, with Gen Z and millennials reducing their average holdings from 31% to 17%. Looking ahead, however, views on cash are split. Half of affluent investors plan to keep their allocations unchanged while 2 in 10 expect to reduce and 3 in 10 expect to increase.
Investors in the UAE are the most likely to deploy more cash (28%) and those in mainland China are the most likely to increase holdings (34%) in the next 12 months.
While the US ranks as the top market for boosting international exposure, affluent investors globally in key international wealth hubs – Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE, UK, US – also show a strong preference for increasing investments in their home regions when diversifying globally.
Overall, 4 in 10 global affluent investors say they plan to invest internationally within the next 12 months, with the highest appetite seen in the UAE (56%) and Singapore (50%). Global affluent investors also singled out the US, Singapore, and Hong Kong as their preferred markets to hold an overseas investment account.