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Understanding wealth management in Dubai

What is wealth management and why is it important?

Wealth management is not just about investing. What most people need is a financial adviser in Dubai – a trusted partner that will help them work out what they want from life, how much money they will need to do what they want to do, and when they’re going to need it.

Expat wealth management is fundamentally about helping successful international families seize the opportunities of wealth whilst avoiding the pitfalls.

The families we serve are looking for more than money management. They seek a deeper understanding of their whole financial landscape; a sage thought partner to help them expertly build and execute a holistic strategic plan that will enable their families to thrive along with their growing wealth. That's why having a trusted multi-family office in Dubai is essential, providing all the necessary family services for long-term success.

It's important to develop a framework that will mean you achieve your wider life objectives, and simplify the complexities of growing, protecting and transferring your wealth.

With this carefully crafted advantage, you’ll establish a solid foundation, build momentum, and achieve intentional success towards your ideal future.

Key benefits of professional wealth management

According to Vanguard, professional wealth management adds value to investors’ bottom lines in 5 ways:

Cost effective implementation (benefit up to 0.3% per year)

This refers to choosing low-cost funds, reducing purchase transactions and investing in a manner that reduces taxable consequences. In fact, investors repatriating to the UK from a tax-free jurisdiction such as the UAE might be able to double or triple this estimate, based on how intelligently an adviser can repatriate their assets.

Effective rebalancing (benefit up to 0.14% per year)

You might think Vanguard misleads investors when suggesting that rebalancing provides a wealth benefit. After all, if someone chooses an allocation that’s 60 percent in stocks and 40 percent in bonds, they’ll make more money over time if they never rebalance it. That’s because the portfolio would gradually shift to a higher allocation of stocks.

But Vanguard’s point is that by maintaining a target allocation, investors are more likely to stay calm when stocks drop. As I mentioned in this article, how an allocation performs, and how investors perform with that specific allocation, are typically two different things.

Behavioural coaching (benefit up to 2% per year)

Every time you as an investor turn on the television, goes online, listens to market-based news or hears a colleague boasting about his big gains, you're at risk. When DIY investors hear such noise, they can react to it quickly. But investors with the right kind of financial adviser have a guardian at their gate.

That doesn’t mean the adviser will get the investor in a headlock, wrestle them to the ground and smack them with common sense. But when investors must speak to an advisor before making an investment change, there’s an opportunity for help. The adviser could convince them to back away from the cliffs of speculation.

Asset allocation (up to 0.6% per year)

This refers to how investments are divided into taxable and tax-advantaged accounts. Expats in the UAE don’t need to worry about this, until they repatriate. But once they do, they’re often fresh meat for the taxman if they don’t have savvy help.

Spending strategy (up to 1.2% per year)

You’ve likely heard of the 4 percent rule. This is how much retirees can afford to sell each year, while giving them solid odds that they won’t run out of money. But how could you make this flexible, during market down years? And could you withdraw more?

Then there’s the question of what to sell, and when. If you’ve retired to a taxable jurisdiction, should you sell assets from your tax-advantaged accounts first?

Types of wealth management services in Dubai

Investment planning & portfolio management

So much of the financial industry is based on convincing you to find the ever-elusive needle in a haystack – the hot sector or new product that promises high returns with seemingly no risk.

What happens when that hot tip doesn’t pan out?

Put simply, we don’t believe in looking for needles in haystacks. We believe in owning haystacks.

Decades of peer-reviewed, Nobel prize-winning financial research demonstrate how investors can increase their expected returns and better achieve their goals when they focus on things they can control: minimising costs, building a diversified portfolio, implementing effective tax strategies, and taking only those risks appropriate to their unique situations.

This approach – known as systematic or evidence-based investing – is at the heart of our client relationships and is the blueprint for the wealth management plans we build. It’s the reason our clients can capture the returns of the markets, helping them build a more secure financial future for themselves and their families.

Our firm belongs to a select group of elite firms with whom these Nobel Laureates, data scientists and investment managers choose to work, based upon shared standards and values.

Despite the prolific success of this approach in markets such as the US, AES remains the only firm in the Middle East with access to these solutions.

Read more

1. Do i need a finanical adviser? 

2. Discover how to maintain wealth by avoiding common mistakes made by the super-affluent

3. Learn what the research says about investing with a financial adviser 

Retirement planning for expats & residents

At retirement, your whole financial life essentially collapses down to one binary question: will your money outlive you, or will you outlive your money?

When it comes to your retirement, running out of money is never an option. That said, unless it’s your intention, leaving behind a huge store of wealth is also not ‘winning the game’.

You need a strategy that keeps you somewhere in between the two outcomes, no matter what. However, there are two major unknowns that make this tricky.

First, you don’t have any idea how long you’ll be retired, which is a nice way of saying you don’t know how long you’ll live. Second, no one knows what the markets will do. All anyone knows is that at times, they’ll go way up, and at other times, they’ll go way down.

Therefore, retirement planning in Dubai comes with it's own unique opportunities and challenges. Firstly, the low tax environment offers incredible wealth-growing potential, especially when coupled with the 'wealth accumulation window' that many expats find themselves in.

But without any mandatory pension schemes in the UAE, taking personal responsibility for your retirement is crucial. Wise counsel from a fiduciary wealth adviser can help navigate the complexities of family wealth as an expatriate while maximising the opportunities.

Estate planning & asset protection strategies

The challenge is that while creating sufficient resources to provide financial security is difficult, the process of effectively stewarding your family wealth for the benefit of future generations and endeavours you value, is fraught by innumerable obstacles.

Many things can impede the transfer of wealth in a manner that’s both aligned with your values and optimally benefits family and society.

Developing an effective and well-balanced estate plan is complicated, takes time, and can require uncomfortable decisions. Not planning properly can result in excess taxes, family conflict, and unnecessary risk.

AES helps well-established families preserve, protect, and transfer wealth. Simply stated, AES provides you with all the guidance, perspective, and knowledge you’ll need to manage the complexities associated with effectively transferring your personal estate.

Read more

1. How to build generational wealth

Wealth structuring & tax efficiency for international investors

Wealth structuring as an expat involves setting up a framework to manage, protect, and transfer wealth efficiently across jurisdictions.

There are four main areas to consider:

1. Protecting your assets to safeguard your wealth from unnecessary tax burdens

2. Estate planning and modelling your wealth transfer strategy and structure

3. Diversification of your assets

4. Compliance with regulations across different countries

Family office services for high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs)

Families often engage a family office when their assets have grown to a size where full-time professional management is required or could be beneficial.

The purpose of the family office is to act as a personal Chief Financial Officer or Chief Adviser to help successful families secure a dynastic legacy and protect and enhance established wealth across generations.

By establishing a family office in Dubai, families enjoy a tax-efficient environment with no personal income tax, capital gains tax, or inheritance tax. They provide financial planning for high net worth individuals with a tailored, independent, and professional approach to wealth management, fostering long-term growth, stability, and intergenerational continuity.

Choosing the right wealth management company in Dubai

How to select a wealth advisor – key factors to consider

The decision to hire a professional international wealth adviser ultimately comes down to cost-versus-benefit. This equation will be different for everyone so we developed a tool that allows you to perform your own cost-benefit analysis.

Here are the key factors to consider when selecting a wealth adviser:

1. The type of wealth adviser

2. The type, level and transparency of fees

3. The breadth of advice on offer

4. The adviser's skill and qualification level

5. The adviser's experience and expertise

6. Your life stage

7. Your goals

 

Private vs. corporate wealth management services – what’s right for you?

Private wealth management is tailored for individuals, offering personalised financial planning, investment strategies, international tax planning and international estate planning. It’s ideal for high-net-worth individuals seeking bespoke advice.

Corporate wealth management focuses on businesses, handling assets, pensions, and financial invetment planning to optimise company growth and stability.

If you need personal wealth protection and growth, private services are best. If you're managing a company’s financial future, corporate services are more suitable.

Financial planning and wealth management for expats in Dubai

Sam and Charles-1

Why expats need specialised wealth management services

As an expat, you face unique financial challenges that require specialised wealth management services in Dubai:

Retirement planning across different countries - pensions, drawdown plans, state benefits

Currency and exchange rate risks - managing income and expenditure in different countries, currency fluctuations

Tax complexities - estate planning, double tax agreements, income tax

Risk management - insurance, healthcare expenditure, cybersecurity

Offshore banking - financial regulations, cash management, non-resident account restrictions

Expatriation, repatriation, and international assignment management - relocating, moving money around the world

Key investment strategies for international professionals

Having an investment philosophy is important.

You need a flexible, diversified, systematic investment process and your portfolio will typically be invested in global markets and adjusted as your investment objectives change.

This evidenced-based strategy should be founded on these tried-and-tested principles:

Markets are remarkably efficient:

It’s impossible to consistently “beat the market”.

Asset allocation is important:

This has a major effect on your portfolio, which is why you need the right mix across equities, fixed income, and alternative investments.

Markets are unpredictable:

We avoid market timing because it adds speculative risk, excessive costs and needless tax.

Broad diversification is necessary:

This ensures your portfolio is designed to maximise long-term return while controlling risk.

Take a global approach:

As global consumers, we should invest overseas.

Actively manage taxes:

Our goal is to employ multiple strategies to assure maximum tax efficiency – sometimes over multiple generations.

Eliminate excessive costs:

The only guarantee in investing is that you will keep more if you spend less.

Systematically rebalance:

This method reduces risk and captures long-term market returns.

Optimise cash flow management:

This ensures your portfolio delivers income and principal to you when you need it.

Read more

1. Learn how your money personality drives all your financial choices

Understanding UAE tax laws & international wealth planning

The UAE offers a tax-friendly environment with no personal income, inheritance or capital gains tax.

However as an expat, you need to ensure your comply with any home country tax obligations.

Your estate is likely subject to multiple legal systems, tax jurisdictions, and inheritance laws, each of which can complicate wealth transfer. Without careful planning, your estate could be tied up in costly legal disputes, excessive taxation, or even frozen bank accounts due to differing international regulations.

Developing an effective and well-balanced estate plan is especially complex for expats. It requires careful structuring, a deep understanding of cross-border financial rules, and often, difficult but necessary decisions to protect your assets and ensure they are distributed according to your wishes.

In many jurisdictions - such as the UAE - local laws may override foreign wills, meaning that without proper advice in Dubai and legally compliant documentation, your assets may be allocated according to local laws rather than your personal wishes.

TALK TO A WEALTH MANAGER IN DUBAI TODAY

Investment opportunities & strategies for wealth growth

 

Offshore investment & international diversification

Successful investing means not only capturing risks that generate expected return but reducing risks that do not. Avoidable risks include holding too few securities.

Diversification is the antidote to all these risks as it washes out the randomness of returns of individual companies, sectors and markets and positions the portfolio to capture the returns of broad economic factors.

Most UK expat investors have habitually over-weighted the UK equity holdings in their portfolios due to familiarity bias, but does this make sense in a world where the UK only represents less than 10% of the world’s market capitalisation

Diversification helps take the guesswork out of investing. You never know which markets will outperform from year to year.

By holding a globally diversified portfolio, expat investors are positioned to capture returns wherever they occur, and a well-diversified portfolio can provide the opportunity for a more stable outcome than a single security.

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How to get started with wealth management in Dubai

 

Steps to choose the right wealth management firm

You should be able to answer these questions when choosing the right wealth management firm in Dubai:

1. What are their core services?

2. What do their breadth of services offer

3. What time horizon do they work to?

4. Are they product focussed, or focussed on your life goals?

5. Is the focus of their conversation with you about money, or life?

6. How often do they want to communicate with you?

7. What are their wealth management qualifications?

8. Do they discuss their duty to you?

9. Who are their typical clients?

10. What do they charge, how and why?

Schedule your discovery call with a Dubai wealth manager

 

We'll call you, talk about your financial goals and help you decide if we're a good fit. It's that easy.


TALK TO A WEALTH MANAGER IN DUBAI TODAY

Wealth Management Services Dubai FAQs

What services do wealth management companies in Dubai offer?

1. Financial planning

2. Investment management

3. Estate and planning

4. Private, offshore and international banking

5. Retirement planning

6. Family office service

How do I choose the right wealth manager in Dubai?

1. Be clear on your financial goals and what you want to acheive

2. Assess the adviser's expertise and experience

3. Understand their services and if they're a good fit to help you achieve your objectives

4. Find out the fees you'll pay and what for

5. Check client reviews and find out more about their reputation

What are the best investment opportunities in Dubai for high-net-worth individuals?

AES and much of the world’s investment fiduciary community often refer to the way we invest as being a ‘systematic’ approach.

This means we advocate you adopt a disciplined, rules-based, and as unemotional approach to investing as we can.

Portfolios are structured around long-term strategic allocations to different types of investments, rather than trying to second guess short-term market and company movements and adjust the portfolio accordingly.

How does wealth management help with international tax planning?

Your adviser will help you plan for any cross-border tax implications as a result of being an expat, ensuring you're compliant with any regulations.

Do expats need a wealth manager in Dubai?

You might need a wealth manager if:

  • You’re a high earner
  • You have a high net worth
  • You’re nearing or in retirement
  • You have a very specific planning need
  • You're thinking about repatriating

How can expats in Dubai protect their wealth internationally?

1. Diversify your investments

2. Set up offshore banking

3. Undertake estate planning

4. Use tax-efficient investments

5. Ensure you're tax compliant

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Level 2, Exchange Tower
Al Mustaqbal Street (Future Street)
PO Box 191905
Dubai
United Arab Emirates

 
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