UAE urges families to tackle succession risks amid wealth shift

The UAE is making an attempt to prevent the squabbling between heirs that often damages family businesses, which make up 90% of the country’s private companies.

Economy Ministry officials recently met with the heads of prominent business families to encourage them to improve succession planning by establishing formal structures around their wealth, Bloomberg reports.

While there are no official estimates, U.S.-based Dash Venture Labs projects that the UAE’s richest families will control a combined $1 trillion by the end of next year.

The increased involvement of family business in private equity and venture capital deals – riskier than the supermarkets and car dealerships favored by previous generations – has made it critical to introduce more formalized internal governance and processes, the news agency said

Dubai climbs wealth rankings with surge in millionaires

Dubai is growing wealthier than ever as the number of millionaires in the Gulf emirate jumped more than 12% last year to 81,000.

That placed the city in 18th place on the annual ranking of the world’s richest cities published by Henley & Partners, up from 21st place last year.

Dubai’s population of centimillionaires – those with $100 million or more – rose to 237 from 212, while the city added five more billionaires from the 15 living there in 2024.

Leading this year’s list was New York, with 349,500 millionaires; the San Francisco Bay area, with 305,700; and Tokyo, with 298,300.