The Multi-Asset
Allocation Model

At family-office scale, the exercise stops being about picking products and starts being about building an institution. The minimum-ticket walls that box in a smaller book fall away, and the full toolkit comes into reach — direct-equity mandates, the private-market stack, and GIFT City as a genuine structuring tool. Expressed purely in proportions, this model leans into India's structural story through the parts of the market that are still reasonably priced, locks in bond yields while they last, uses private markets to raise return and lower correlation, and keeps gold and a global sleeve as ballast against an oil-driven, higher-for-longer world.

The market is a paradox worth owning. The benchmarks are flat-to-down over a year after a long grind of foreign selling, a weak rupee and an oil shock out of West Asia — yet large-cap valuations have fallen back below their ten-year average, earnings are re-accelerating, and domestic investors are committing record sums every month. The macro tail-risk sits offshore: a hawkish Fed and a Middle-East oil premium, not India's own fundamentals.

The model is not an assortment of ideas — it is built on the allocation frameworks the world's most sophisticated institutions have converged on over four decades. Endowments, sovereign funds and the leading asset managers disagree on plenty, but they agree on the handful of principles below. Each one is visible in the weights that follow.

The opportunity set is a function of sophistication, not just conviction. Every tier up the ladder opens instruments that were simply inaccessible below it. A family-office book stands on the top rung — with the full institutional toolkit in reach.

A core-satellite architecture. Liquid Indian equity and fixed income form the core; private markets, real assets, gold and a global sleeve are the return-and-diversification satellites. Seven asset classes, each with a defined job, expressed purely as a share of the whole.

The full model, sleeve by sleeve

Each card is one asset class; the bar shows its share of the whole, and the rows break it into sub-strategies with their role. Sub-weights are shares of the total portfolio.

All weights sum to 100%. Weights are the model's strategic targets; actual sizing is tailored per family to risk posture, liquidity needs, existing holdings and tax position. Instrument selection follows NU X WEALTH's open-architecture diligence — no house products, no product push.

The engine of long-term growth — but positioned where value actually sits. Large-caps and quality lead; mid- and small-caps are held, but modestly and phased, because they remain rich and retail-crowded. PMS does the heavy lifting on direct-equity alpha; thematic exposure rides the capex supercycle as a satellite.

• Large-cap & Flexi Core 15%

  The reasonably-valued anchor. A blend of large-cap and flexi-cap funds plus a large-cap PMS, structurally overweight financials — the sector where nearly every major house holds its highest conviction, and where India's credit cycle plays out.

  Vehicle:MF + PMSLiquidity:HighEst. return:11–13%
• Multi-cap / Value PMS 9%

  Direct-equity alpha through a quality-and-value PMS with a multi-year holding discipline. Judged on 3–5 year risk-adjusted consistency and drawdown behaviour, not last year's headline number — the industry's 1-year prints were flat-to-negative into a soft market.

  Vehicle:PMSLiquidity:Med–HighEst. return:12–15%
• Mid & Small-cap 8%

  Genuine structural growth, but the most crowded part of the market. Held deliberately underweight relative to retail flows, and deployed in staggered tranches to avoid buying a rich pocket in one go.

  Vehicle:MF + PMSLiquidity:HighApproach:Phased
• Thematic — Capex, Defence, Power 6%

  The manufacturing and energy-security supercycle — defence, power, data centres, industrial on-shoring. Real multi-year visibility, but valuations are already full, so it sits as a contained satellite via a diversified thematic vehicle rather than concentrated single stocks.

  Vehicle:Thematic fundRole:SatelliteConviction:High, priced

This is the sleeve a family-office book can build that a smaller one cannot — and the single biggest reason the portfolio behaves differently. Private credit delivers contracted, equity-like yield with low correlation to listed markets; late-stage private equity buys growth close to a liquidity event; long-short manages drawdowns. Each carries an institutional minimum ticket and a multi-year lock, so manager selection and diligence are everything.

Private credit — the target-return landscape

Indicative gross target-return bands, not guarantees; net returns are lower after fees and any fund-level tax. Sources synthesised from EY India Private Credit survey (Dec 2025) and industry data, 2026.

• Performing Credit — Cat II AIF 9%

  Structured lending to mid-market companies as banks tightened. Contracted coupons, quarterly-style accrual, low correlation to listed equity — the workhorse of the alternatives sleeve. Target 12–16% gross over a three-to-four-year life, with pass-through taxation at the investor's rate.

  Lock:3–4 yrsTax:Pass-throughTarget:12–16%
• Real-Estate-Backed Credit — Cat II 4%

  The sharper risk-adjusted bet within private credit: tangible collateral, RERA oversight and milestone-linked deployment give real structural control that unsecured corporate lending lacks. Repayment is backed by the asset, not just promoter cash flow.

  Security:CollateralisedLock:3–5 yrsTarget:14–18%
• Late-Stage PE / Pre-IPO — Cat II 5%

  Growth equity two-to-three years either side of a listing — the "crossover" window. India's PE cycle is reviving as IPOs and M&A restore exits. High return potential and high dispersion: this is patient, illiquid capital, and outcomes hinge entirely on the manager.

  Lock:5–7 yrsReturn:High / dispersed
• Long-Short / Absolute Return — Cat III 4%

  Hedge-style strategies to dampen drawdowns and add a low-correlation return stream. Sized modestly and deliberately, because Category III funds pay tax at the maximum marginal rate (~42.7%) at the fund level — a real drag that lowers post-tax returns and must be underwritten upfront.

  Tax:Fund pays MMR ~42.7%Liquidity:Periodic

AIF categories at a glance

AIFs carry an institutional minimum commitment per investor (SEBI). Tax treatment is indicative — verify with current law and a tax adviser before committing.

With the rate-cut cycle paused and real yields positive, fixed income is genuinely attractive again — but for income and accrual, not for a leveraged bet on falling rates. The sleeve is accrual-led, with a measured duration position that would benefit if growth slows and the RBI eventually eases, and which is supported by foreign flows into government bonds via index inclusion.

The benchmark 10-year G-Sec yield — with headline inflation near 4.4%, real yields are comfortably positive. The accrual on offer today is the kind that disappears once a cutting cycle resumes, which is precisely why the sleeve locks it in now.

• Target-Maturity / Corporate Accrual 8%

  The core: high-grade target-maturity and corporate-bond exposure that locks in today's yields to a defined horizon, with visibility on the return if held to maturity.

  Est. yield:7–7.75%Credit:High-gradeLiquidity:High
• Short-Duration / Banking & PSU 4%

  Low-volatility ballast that also serves as a staging area for equity tranches during the deployment window. Minimal duration risk, high liquidity.

  Est. yield:6.75–7.25%Duration:LowRole:Stability
• Long-Duration Gilt 4%

  A measured duration position — the one part of the book that gains if growth disappoints and the RBI cuts. Supported by foreign inflows into the Fully Accessible Route ahead of global bond-index inclusion.

  Est. yield:~6.8–7%Duration:LongRole:Optionality
• Select High-Yield NCD / InvIT Debt 2%

  A small, carefully-underwritten yield-enhancement position in listed higher-yield instruments — bridging fixed income and the real-asset sleeve.

  Est. yield:8.5–10%Credit:SelectiveSizing:Contained

Institutionally-managed real estate — for income and an inflation hedge, through proper vehicles rather than direct property. In a paused-to-easing rate environment, listed REITs and InvITs become more attractive relative to bonds, while SEBI's SM REIT framework opens Grade-A commercial yields that used to require large, direct lump-sum outlays.

• Listed REITs / InvITs 5%

  Exchange-listed, liquid, diversified office and infrastructure income. Distribution yields of roughly 6–9%, with growth as rents and tariffs rise — the liquid core of the real-asset sleeve.

  Yield:6–9%Liquidity:Listed / high
• SM REIT / Grade-A Commercial 3%

  Targeted exposure to specific Grade-A assets via SEBI-regulated SM REITs, where at least 95% of holdings must be completed and rent-generating. Higher yield, but with single-asset concentration risk — sized small and diversified across assets.

  Yield:8–11%IRR target:13–17%

Why real assets, and why now — the yield gap

Two forms of ballast. Gold is insurance — not a bet — and doubly useful for an Indian investor because rupee weakness lifts its local value; it corrected from January's record and remains structurally supported by central-bank demand. The global sleeve, routed through GIFT City, hedges the invisible risk in an all-rupee book: that a sharp depreciation quietly erodes what the wealth can actually buy abroad.

• Gold 4.5%

  Held via ETFs, funds or existing sovereign gold bonds. A portfolio hedge against geopolitical and inflation shocks, with an added rupee tailwind. Consolidating after its January 2026 record, and structurally supported by sustained central-bank buying.

  Role:InsuranceINR effect:Tailwind
• Silver 1.5%

  A small, higher-volatility satellite — part monetary metal, part industrial input for solar, EVs and electronics, underpinned by a multi-year supply deficit. Sized to add convexity, not to anchor.

  Role:ConvexityVolatility:High
• Global Equity / US Quality 4%

  Developed-market and US quality exposure via GIFT City funds — diversification into USD-denominated assets that behave differently from Indian equity and cushion rupee moves.

  Route:GIFT / LRSCurrency:USD
• Global Private Markets / Credit Feeder 2%

  Access to global private credit and private-equity feeders through a GIFT City AIF — offshore alpha and currency ballast in a single, India-regulated wrapper.

  Route:GIFT AIFRole:Offshore alpha

Routes to global markets from India

GIFT City / IFSC features are indicative and condition-dependent; tax frameworks can evolve. Any cross-border structuring is executed with the family's tax and legal counsel. IFSCA granted the first Family Investment Fund registration in April 2026.

Blending seven asset classes with different drivers produces a book that targets equity-like returns at meaningfully lower volatility — the whole point of the alternatives and real-asset sleeves. The figures below are scenario estimates, not forecasts.

Liquidity profile

Not in one lump. A range-bound, headline-driven market and a book with a 25% illiquidity budget both argue for a phased entry across six to nine months — using the fixed-income sleeve as a staging area and letting private-market drawdowns stagger themselves.

An honest book names its risks precisely. Three deserve the most attention — the offshore macro, the illiquidity we have chosen to take on, and the tax and valuation traps hiding inside the alternatives and mid-cap sleeves.

Strip out the jargon and here is the whole idea, in proportions. A little under 40% of the book goes into Indian shares — mostly big, well-priced companies and a couple of expert stock-pickers — because India's long-term growth story is intact and, for once, the sensible large companies are not expensive. We are cautious on the small, hot stocks everyone is chasing, so we buy those slowly.

Then comes the part that scale unlocks, which a smaller pot cannot reach. About a fifth goes into private deals — lending to solid mid-sized companies at 12–18% a year, some of it backed by real property; a little into promising businesses shortly before they list; and a small hedge-style fund to soften the bad days. This money is locked away for a few years, which is the trade: you give up the ability to touch it, and in return you earn more and it doesn't lurch around with the stock market.

Under a fifth sits in bonds, earning a genuinely good ~7% that we lock in now before it fades. A slice goes into rent-earning commercial property through listed trusts, paying 6–11%. A small holding of gold and a little silver is the insurance policy — it tends to do well exactly when everything else is frightening, and it quietly gains when the rupee weakens. And a modest slice goes abroad, through GIFT City, so that not every rupee of your wealth is riding on India and the rupee alone.

Put together, this aims for roughly 11–12% a year over a full cycle — with a far smoother ride than shares alone — while paying out around 3.5% in cash each year if you want to draw an income. We deploy it over six to nine months rather than all at once, because the market is choppy and there is no prize for rushing. And we review it every six months: trim what has run, top up what has lagged, and leave the locked-away parts to do their work.