Wealth prospecting is the use of software to find very rich people who may become clients, and to spot the moments when someone suddenly becomes richer. A prospect is a person who may become a client. The software builds an up-to-date profile of each rich person, from public information.
Banks and advisers call these people HNIs (high-net-worth individuals) and UHNIs (ultra-high-net-worth individuals). The firms that want them as clients are mainly wealth managers and private banks. Luxury brands and property developers use the same software.
Here is how it works in general. The software reads public sources: company filings, stock exchange announcements, news and records of who owns which company. From these, it builds a profile of each person: which companies they founded or own, roughly what their stake is worth, and who they are connected to. It then watches for events that change a person's wealth. Two common events are a company's first listing on the stock market, called an IPO (initial public offering), and the sale of a company.
Say a logistics start-up in Gurugram lists on the stock exchange. Its three founders now own shares worth hundreds of crores. Under SEBI's rules, they must wait at least six months after the listing before they can sell most of these shares. The software alerts a private banker's team on the same day. It shows each founder's profile and anyone in the bank who already knows them. The prospect is added to the banker's list on the wealth management platform.
Some of the market data comes from a financial data terminal or similar sources. An AI model reads the news and filings and links each event to the right person.
Because the software builds profiles of real people, it must follow India's data protection law, the DPDP Act, and similar laws abroad. Most of the DPDP Act's duties apply from 13 May 2027. The Act does not cover personal data that the person has made public, or that a law requires to be made public, such as a director's details in company filings. Once the person becomes a client, the adviser uses the other tools of wealth management instead, such as wealth aggregation.