The UAE is home to many ultra-wealthy families and family-owned businesses.
It has increasingly become an attractive destination for the privately wealthy – for instance, Dubai is home to 120 of the world’s wealthiest families and individuals with a combined net worth exceeding US$1 trillion (AED3.67 trillion), in addition to being home to 72,500 high net worth individuals1 (HNWIs). In September 2022, the UAE launched a programme that aims to double family-owned businesses’ contribution to the nation’s gross domestic product to US$320 billion by 2032 and help them become more innovative and adopt new technologies.
In no small part due to its two financial free zones, the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the UAE has built a regulatory framework and infrastructure to help support the growth and needs of HNWIs, as well as family offices and should be viewed worldwide as a stable option for family office planning.
This article provides an overview of the UAE legal landscape for family offices and highlights recent market changes that will, in our view, continue to enhance the attractiveness of the UAE as a destination for family offices when compared to some of the more traditional offshore centres.
