Nerine said it is the first independent trust company to have opened an office in India - launching Nerine Advisory Services Pvt in Delhi in 2011, followed later that year by the incorporation of Nerine Trustee Company Limited.

Nerine Advisory Services India Pvt managing director, Pranav Khanna, said: “Our decision to set up an office in India was a major step forward for us that cemented Nerine’s continued expansion plans in Asia after the success of our stand-alone office in Hong Kong.

 “The natural progression for succession planning was developing our domestic trust offering. Some may believe that, because India's legal system is based on British law, this would be straightforward. This is not the case as Indian family law is complex and each religion has its own specific laws which must be adhered to. However, we now have the infrastructure and skills in place to advise and provide effective succession planning to Indian residents using domestic trusts,” Khanna said in a statement.

“Factors in the past ten years have meant that there has been a renaissance in trusts as a mode of succession and estate planning in India. One reason is the rapid and broad economic growth which is setting the agenda for change in a number of areas,” he said.

“Nerine’s Indian domestic trust is tailored to meet clients’ expectations which have outgrown traditional solutions and they now need a structure that ensures optimisation and continuity of ownership and management skills matching the business's present and future needs,” Khanna said.

A development that has boosted private wealth structuring has been the Indian government’s recent relaxation of its rules on remittance of funds abroad by resident Indians. Every individual is now allowed to remit $200,000 per year, including minors. This amount is expected to rise to $400,000 in the next year, Nerine said.

“As a consequence, high net worth individuals have started to accrue assets outside India that are subject to foreign taxes and laws,” Khanna added.