Financial planning for
high-net-worth-individuals in Dubai
Helping you get and keep the life you want
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Introduction to financial planning for high-net-worth individuals
HNWIs (High-Net-Worth Individuals) and UHNWIs (Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals) are terms used in wealth management to classify individuals based on their net worth.
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HNWIs have at least $1 million in liquid financial assets such as cash, investments or pensions
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UHNWIs are those with $30 million or more in liquid financial assets
These asset levels are often the basis for how financial advisers determine whether their services are suitable for potential clients.
Contents
The importance of financial planning for HNWIs in Dubai
Every family of wealth needs a financial plan. In fact, an investment in a solid, thoughtful plan will pay dividends long into the future. It allows you to build a roadmap to achieve your goals, and a framework to make sensible decisions over the course of your lifetime. And “over the course of your lifetime” is key.
A good plan should last a long time but must be monitored and updated to reflect life transitions. What matters is having a financial plan that works regardless of what happens tomorrow. Think of it like sailing across an ocean. While tomorrow's weather report would help, it pales in comparison to having a seaworthy vessel, proper navigation tools, and an experienced captain.
The participants were trying to navigate changing seas with nothing but a weather forecast. A good financial plan and high-quality financial planning works the same way. It spreads risk sensibly, across different asset classes and time horizons. It accounts for taxes, estate planning, and protecting against market shocks. While markets swing from panic to euphoria, a strong plan keeps you moving towards your long-term goals, focused on the destination...
Not the day-to-day waves.
Here are the key financial planning principles for HNWIs in Dubai:
Goals and objectives
- What is the wealth for?
- Who is the wealth for?
- When will they receive it?
- How much will (and should) they get?
The numbers
- Your family's assets and liabilities
- Your family's income statement
Focus on what you can control
- Which scenario is most likely to achieve your and your family’s goals?
The plan doesn't stop there
- Tax planning
- Investment planning
- Estate planning
- Life insurance
Financial planning is more than just financial advice on where to put your money. It’s about a highly personalised, tailored approach to planning your life in numbers.
Key differences between standard financial planning and HNWI financial planning
The core principles of financial planning (or' financial life management') are the same for everyone. The differences between standard financial planning and HNWI financial planning are significant, mainly because of the complexity and scale of assets, tax exposure, and goals involved.
Standard financial planning is about building and securing wealth, whereas HNWI financial planning is about preserving, growing, and passing on complex wealth - often in a global, multi-generational context.
The role of HNW financial advisers in Dubai
What does a high-net-worth financial adviser do?
Winning in life’s journey isn’t about ‘products’, and managing your money is only the tip of the iceberg.
There are always deeper conversations to be had about money and your success. The role of a financial adviser in Dubai is to remove the hassle and worry of managing your financial affairs, giving you back time, peace of mind and reassurance to do the things you need to do today in the knowledge that world-leading professionals have your back.
A high-net-worth financial adviser should be asking you:
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Are you making the smartest decisions you can about your money and your future?
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Are you certain that you, and the people you care about most, are going to be OK – no matter what?
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Are you doing everything you want, when you want to, and are you living your best life?
Once you’ve clarity around these outcomes, they should provide you with a step-by-step pathway to making the right decisions and confidently achieving your future goals.
How to choose the best financial adviser for high-net-worth individuals in the UAE
With so many financial advisers to choose from, finding the one who’s right for you is quite a challenge. Firstly, not everyone needs an adviser. There may be a few people who can manage without, but sooner or later the vast majority of high net worth individuals would get significant value from working with an expert firm.
But for high net worth individuals in Dubai, it can be very difficult to know where to start. It’s important to realise that the role of an adviser, or financial planner, has changed considerably over the years. The idea of advisers providing information solely about investment opportunities only is no longer the reality. Today, financial advisers should draw a holistic picture of you and your family's goals, objectives, wants, needs and fears.
So, what do you need to ask a financial adviser to know if they're right for you?
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Are you a fiduciary?
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How are you compensated?
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What are your fees?
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What kind of people or situations do you have particular expertise in?
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Do you work with other high-net-worth individuals?
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What are your credentials and qualifications?
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What areas of my financial life will you help me with?
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What does your process look like? Both when I’m a new client, and after the initial work together?
Private wealth management vs. independent financial adviser in Dubai: which is better?
Many private wealth managers in Dubai are extremely popular with the less-informed international investor who perhaps lacks a comprehensive framework, the skills and experience for evaluating the services, expertise and value on offer.
It's not uncommon to see relationship decisions made upon 'tangibles' such as the associated prestige of holding an account and having the ‘red-carpet rolled out’, without regard to the 'intangibles' such as the potential conflicts of interest, product range, competency, charges, access or terms on offer.
An ability to ask the right questions at the outset of a private banking or wealth management relationship and the ability to avoid having to actually become a client and 'discovering through experience' is therefore critical to avoid future surprises and keeping yourself on a wealth-building trajectory.
A well-researched private banking guide can be invaluable in helping investors navigate this complex landscape.
For wealthy individuals, there is no choice but to be extremely critical about how many private wealth managers in the UAE charge and to consider - where one has negotiating power given the level of assets involved - not signing the standard documents that they put in front of you, but rather to set out your own terms, mandating your advisers to work in a way that makes sense for the wealth-owning family itself.
High-net-worth investment strategies in the UAE
Diversification strategies for HNWIs in Dubai
Diversification is sometimes referred to as the one free lunch in investing. That’s really just common sense, but so many investors, including the professionals, fail to take advantage of it.
The most famous proponent of diversification is the Nobel Prize-winning economist Harry Markowitz.
He says it’s just as critical today as it was when he first started writing about it in the early 1950s. Professor Markowitz says the biggest mistake investors make is that they chase performance, and often buy at the top and sell at the bottom. If gold is going up, there are people who are rushing in to buy gold. There are two kinds of people: ill-advised and well advised. Diversified investors will not hang their hopes on one asset class, sector, country, or stock. They’ll spread their exposure across shares and bonds, different markets, industries and currencies.
Diversification increases the reliability and predictability of investment returns. Looked at another way, it smooths the way and reduces the sudden bumps in the investing road. The ups may be less spectacular, but the downs will also be less stomach-churning.
Diversification works because different parts of financial markets aren’t perfectly correlated. As one asset class goes down, another may go up. Shares (a growth asset) and bonds (a defensive one) are the classic example. But diversification also applies within asset classes. In your stock portfolio, you can spread your risk across sectors. Instead of putting everything in technology, materials or financials, you can have a bit of everything.
And instead of sticking to one country, you can diversify internationally across developed and emerging markets. Ultimately, diversification works because you are giving yourself more choices - you are less reliant on any one variable. In this way, you are reducing idiosyncratic risk relating to single industries, shares or countries. You can diversify within a bond portfolio as well, spreading your holdings between government and corporate bonds, between long-term bonds and short-term bonds and bonds of higher credit and lower credit.
Real estate investment strategies for HNWIs in Dubai
Property decisions can have a profound impact on your financial life pathway. These can be both positive and negative.
Strangely, we often find little technical analysis is invested in many purchasing, holding, structuring, funding or selling decisions. In our experience, a little bit of time invested well can make a massive difference.
This includes decisions about main homes, second homes, holiday property, investment rental property, flipping and reselling, buy-to-lets, and REITs.
People love talking about property - should you rent? Should you buy? Should you invest?
After all, a house is the largest asset many families will ever own. It's also the most emotionally meaningful. It turns out that different cultures have different psychographic profiles and feelings towards property. Many continental Europeans are often happier renting, but the British and Irish love ownership. Perhaps it isn't surprising, as kids we love playing Monopoly, and learned nothing is as 'safe as houses'. These scripts are easily absorbed and contribute to what becomes our 'Money Personality'.
Unpopular opinion: property returns are not always as they seem. Investing in the stock market has historically offered better returns than property over the long term.
Simply put, an investment in property earns just 3-4% per year, historically. Investments in global equities post annuallised returns of 10%+.
Alternative investment strategies (private equity, venture capital, hedge funds) in Dubai
A lot of our clients have built portfolios worth millions of pounds, thanks to many successful years of work. Most are perfectly content to continue with the scientifically proven strategy of investing in a diversified, low-cost portfolio of the great companies of the world.
They know the story of the tortoise and the hare - a boring, 'high-end vanilla,' sensible way of growing and/or protecting their wealth always wins the race. However, now and again, some clients express interest in exploring more 'exciting' investment opportunities...
These 'shiny' opportunities are typically private-equity, venture capital, 'pre-IPO' stocks, or hedge funds. Rich people are typically aware of these, because money-hungry private banks and smooth-talking brokers stroke their egos with 'privileged' access, whilst promising 'extraordinary' returns.
The real agenda is something quite different (the vendors' personal financial interest, not yours). So, what’s the issue with investing in any of these 'fancier' options?
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Your money is not easily accessible (illiquidity)
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Your money is not diversified
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Your investments are less transparent
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You pay much more
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Your investments could lack intrinsic value
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You're competing with professional
Before diving into any of these investments, ask yourself: do you really need to take on this additional risk? If you’ve already accumulated enough wealth to meet your needs, why gamble it on something uncertain?
Tax-efficient investment strategies in Dubai
There are many potential advantages to investing offshore if you’re a HNWI in the UAE, one such being higher returns and lower taxes as an international investors.
If you look offshore and take an international approach to seeking out the best returns, you can find tax efficient investment products and higher returning investment solutions. Subject to your qualification for such benefits, you could potentially enjoy much better returns and far lower taxes on your investments.
Ultra-high-net-worth investment strategies in Dubai
Direct investments & family offices: managing generational wealth in Dubai
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 in Dubai is to secure a dynastic legacy and protect and enhance established wealth across generations.
The family office invests the family’s money, manages all of the family’s assets, and disburses payments to family members as directed.
In short, it will stop the leakage of wealth which, when compounded over time, can lose millions of dollars.
The decision to engage a family office is an important and personal one because it should be a long-term relationship based on deep trust, integrity and understanding of the family, the assets it controls and the family’s future intentions and wishes.
Dubai has emerged as a leading global hub for family office advisory services due to its favorable regulatory framework, tax efficiency, economic stability, and strategic location between Europe, Asia, and Africa. The city offers several advantages for setting up a family office, including world-class financial services, a business-friendly environment, and attractive residency options through investor and entrepreneur visa programmes.
Offshore investments and wealth diversification for HNWIs in the UAE
The term 'offshore investment' is synonymous with illegally 'stashing cash' out of reach of the taxman. This is just a myth perpetuated by the media, and understanding offshore investment risks is crucial to making informed decisions.
Offshore investing and international investing are one and the same: the terms are used interchangeably, though some debate exists around offshore vs international investment differences in terms of regulatory frameworks. Offshore simply means a jurisdiction or country other than the one in which you're living.
When we talk about investing abroad we aren't suggesting putting your money in a poorly regulated, semi-legal island state where there are no rules, and where you have no protection. The offshore centres and international jurisdictions utilised most are those offering high levels of consumer protection. They maintain strict regulatory oversight to protect investors' interests.
Investments made are completely geographically portable. And investments can be managed easily, no matter where you're from, where you move to, or even where you want to retire or if you want to repatriate. Ultimately, offshore solutions deliver the widest possible choice.
Keeping your money in a country other than the one in which you live means if anything happens, you know your money is being held securely elsewhere. Keeping your money outside your old home country too will help you avoid paying taxes unnecessarily.
Wealth management for HNWIs in the UAE
Multi-generational wealth planning & estate structuring
Estate planning for ultra-high-net-worth expats in the UAE requires special attention due to Sharia law, inheritance regulations, and tax implications. It's not uncommon for HNWIs in the UAE to make a number of mistakes with regard to their estate plan.
Here’s what you need to consider:
1. UAE inheritance laws
2. Drafting a will in the UAE
3. Bank accounts and property
4. Business succession planning
5. Tax considerations
6. Life insurance and pension planning
7. Power of Attorney and guardianship
Asset protection strategies
The challenge is that while creating sufficient resources to provide financial security is difficult, the process of effectively stewarding wealth for the benefit of future generations and endeavors you value is fraught with innumerable obstacles - especially for expatriates.
As an expat, your estate is likely subject to multiple legal systems, tax jurisdictions, and inheritance laws, each of which can complicate wealth transfer. Many things can impede the distribution of assets in a way that aligns with your values and provides the greatest benefit to your family and society.
Developing an effective and well-balanced 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 investment advice in Dubai and legally compliant documentation, your assets may be allocated according to local laws rather than your personal wishes.
Tax planning HNWIs: best practices for UAE residents
For UAE resident expat families and HNWI with assets across multiple countries, tax-efficient planning is essential to minimise inheritance tax, capital gains tax, and other levies that could erode wealth.
Here are the best practice strategies:
Use trusts for asset protection
Lifetime gifting
Take advantage of double tax treaties
Use life insurance to cover tax liabilities
Consider residency and domicile planning
Establish tax-efficient investments
Regularly review your estate plan
Best investment firms for HNWIs in the UAE
How to select the right investment firm in Dubai
Before you start out on your investment journey, it's important for you to think about how to set investment goals. Identifying your investment goals and articulating them will give you clarity around what investment success means to you.
There are three key factors to consider when investing: your age, income, and lifestyle. Identifying where you want to be at each stage in life will define your appetite for risk and the amount you invest.
The return from your investments could mean different things - it could be the money you use to pay for your children's education or your retirement. Understanding how to identify financial investment opportunities that align with your financial needs is crucial. Knowing what to know before investing - such as risk levels, market conditions, and wealth management strategies - ensures you make informed decisions that support your ideal future.
Here's how to select the right firm:
1. Define your investing goals
2. Understand your investment needs
3. Look for firms specialising in HNWI services
4. Evaluate their qualifications, licensing and regulations
5. Assess their previous performance and strategy
6. Review the credentials of the advisers you'll be working with
7. Understand their fee structure
8. Ask for social proof from referrals and reviews
Top private banks and wealth managers for HNWIs
Many private and international banks in Dubai are extremely popular with the less-informed international investor who perhaps lacks a comprehensive framework, the skills and experience for evaluating the services, expertise and value on offer.
Here are some of the main international and private banks in the UAE:
Arbuthnot Latham
Bank of Singapore
Barclays Private Bank
BNP Paribas
Citibank
Credit-Suisse
DBS Bank
Deutsche Bank
Dubai Islamic Bank
Emirates NBD Private Bank
First Abu Dhabi (FAB) Bank
Habib Bank AG Zurich
HSBC Private Bank
J.P. Morgan
Julius Baer
LGT
Lombard Odier
Mashreq Private Bank
Pictet Private Bank
Santander Private Banking
Standard Chartered Private Bank
UBS
Union Bank Privée (UBP)
Family offices vs. institutional wealth management in Dubai
In Dubai, family offices cater to ultra-wealthy families, offering bespoke services like wealth preservation, succession planning, and private investments. They prioritise discretion, long-term goals, and family control. Institutional wealth managers, on the other hand, serve large organisations - such as pension funds or corporations - with performance-driven strategies, broad market access, and structured governance.
While both are regulated under DIFC or ADGM, family offices offer highly tailored solutions, whereas institutional firms operate on scale with formal mandates. Dubai is fast becoming a global hub for family offices, thanks to regulatory support and tax-friendly structures. The choice depends on control, goals, and the level of personalisation needed.
Book a Discovery Call
Great financial life management is like an iceberg, with most of the real story happening below the surface. There are much deeper conversations to be had. AES advocates strongly for a well-planned, intentional, and flourishing future for all the families we serve. Book a no-obligation, no-commitment chat today.
High-net-worth financial planning FAQs
Is our service right for you?
Having a life that spans countries, currencies and tax regimes can be challenging. That's why AES built the Financial Life Management service - not to complicate your finances further, but to make them work for you.
Financial Life Management helps you get and keep the life you want. It answers the questions that matter: How much is enough? When can you afford to retire? And it does this through a structured, clear, and engaging process that removes the anxiety and burden of managing complicated financial affairs across borders.
Rather than fighting costly mistakes or operating reactively, you'll have the clarity, confidence, and control to make evidence-based decisions - grounded in academic science rather than speculation or emotion. The result is financial independence maintained alongside a comfortable lifestyle, with the risks you're exposed to thoughtfully managed.
AES serves internationally mobile individuals and families, many of whom are independent business owners and successful families. Some are retirees who travel and spend time with family and pursuing hobbies. What your circumstances share is a common thread: you've achieved success in life by surrounding yourself with talented and intelligent people, and your time is better spent on the things you love doing. You already know how to build and maintain success. What you need is a team equally capable of managing the financial dimension so you don't have to.
Clients tell us that working with AES brings peace of mind. Confidence. Time to focus on what matters. Feeling connected and informed. Relief. Happiness. You have loved ones to care for, charities to support, vacations to enjoy, and memories to be made. Worrying about your financial situation isn't one of your goals - and AES is built to make sure it doesn't have to be.
The approach is built on a simple philosophy: manage your resources - money and time - to get the most out of life. Most people spend considerable time working to make money without stopping to consider how their finances can be put to work to create the lifestyle they want. AES exists to change that. Our experts help you use your money now to live life to the full while working with you to create a compelling vision for the future and a bespoke financial plan to bring it to life. This is why we say: you first, money second.
AES begins by asking big questions to help you think clearly about what you really want from life. Once we understand what makes life worthwhile to you, we work with you to develop a clear picture of your financial future. Then we help you put your money to work—not as an end in itself, but as the means to the future you've chosen to build.
What is international financial planning?
International financial planning is a professional approach to planning your financial future.
It helps those who live overseas (expatriates), those with complex cross-border tax arrangements (non-doms), and those who own assets in multiple tax, legal and regulatory jurisdictions.
Based on your personal risks, aspirations and financial demands, a good financial planner will produce an effective road map to help you reach your desired financial destination, and meet the challenges of different life stages with peace of mind.
They may cover your wealth accumulation phase, wealth preservation phase, income in retirement phase, inheritance tax and succession planning stages.
The best offshore financial advice helps point out the risks, the returns and the flexibility of your options within a marketplace where many regulatory and legal protections may not apply.
The best international financial advisers recommend which path to take so that you can grow your money through solid investment choices, but still have enough cash and flexibility for expenditure.
We believe good international financial planning is entirely different to the pure investment brokerage offered by traditional advisers.
It typically includes:
- offshore banking
- cashflow planning;
- retirement and pension planning;
- estate planning and wealth protection; and
- tax and trust planning
What is the value of international financial advice?
It's hard to articulate all the benefits of a trusted financial life manager.
Some can be purely captured in monetary terms. Yet many benefits are intangible, such as peace of mind and contentment from knowing that your finances are taken care of and you can get on with living your life.
Specifically, the true value of a financial life manager is in crafting the future life you want into a plan and creating an investment policy appropriate to your most cherished goals (perhaps 20% of the value proposition). Behavioural investment counsel and coaching during stressful market episodes, be they terrifying or ecstatic (the other 80%).
As virtually no household/family is capable of these achievements, much less both, a good financial planners fee is a small fraction of their value to you. Near great market turning points - this service is quite literally priceless.
Seven specific benefits from choosing our All About You service include:
1. You’ll get a highly tested, personalised financial plan (or Life Strategy) tailored to your values and goals
2. You’ll get privileged access to an extraordinary Nobel prize-winning, evidence-based investment strategy unavailable to ordinary investors
3. You’ll experience the massive benefit of working with the only certified and proven fiduciary in Asia, the Middle East and Africa
4. You’ll receive a high touch, individualised, team-orientated service to help keep you financially educated and comfortable
5. You’ll work with a stable team at a large, independent, well established firm
6. You’ll get a flexible, diversified, systematic investment process and your portfolio will typically be invested in global markets and adjusted as your investment objectives change
7. Your fees are fair, and you’ll know what they are
Should high-net-worth individuals in the UAE work with a financial advisor or family office?
As an international HNWI and part of a globally-minded family, financial planning has even more significance, since your circumstances are likely more complex. Seeking a sage guide can help you navigate these complexities with confidence.
Why should I consider hiring AES?
Great question! But first, let us explain why you shouldn't hire us.
If you’re looking for a financial adviser who will trade stocks to “beat the market,” you’re in the wrong place. Why? Because we only focus on what you can control. Predicting if the stock market will go up or down, or guessing what interest rates will do next, are not things you can control.
But if you’re interested in things like optimising your finances, investing smarter, and creating a reliable income stream in retirement, you’re in the right place.
AES is known for addressing a broken financial system and completely turning it on its head. This means you get a breakthrough financial life management service supported by access to an institutional investment service.
AES UK was the first firm within the international marketplace to gain Corporate Chartered Financial Planner status and is the only firm in the AMEA region to be independently verified and certified as a fiduciary. This gives you peace of mind and security to know you will benefit from high professional standards.
Managing Director and Founder Sam Instone has been recognised by Sir Richard Branson, Ernst & Young, Barclays and The Economist as a financial leader. He
regularly features on TV as well as on radio and in press columns.
For your additional comfort and security, accounts are held at well-known, secure institutions specialising in asset custody, and your portfolio is accessible to you at any time.
You have virtually every aspect of the investment process managed for you, including account setup, asset allocation, re balancing and individual transactions.