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Ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) families are putting greater focus on legacy planning to create sustainable impact for future generations amid growing uncertainty and vast fortunes shifting to younger heirs, according to participants in a Standard Chartered event in Dubai focused on family offices. The emphasis among such families was changing from wealth preservation towards a strategic repositioning of family-office locations, governance structures, succession planning and decision-making, according to the London-headquartered bank. The Global Families Network Forum, which ended Thursday, was attended by 90 global UHNW families from Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The event’s host city in the United Arab Emirates – following the inaugural event in Hong Kong last year – is one of Standard Chartered’s international wealth hubs and is known for its strategic location, open economy, progressive regulations and diverse population, the bank said in a press release. “Managing family wealth is becoming increasingly complex amid today’s shifting paradigms,” said Raymond Ang, global head of private banking and affluent clients. He added that the forum was a “trusted space” for UHNW families to connect, share and learn. The event’s headline session was a fireside chat between John Kerry, former US secretary of state, and the bank’s group CEO Bill Winters. Other speakers included Sabrina Fung, group managing director of Hong Kong tycoon Victor Fung Kwok-king’s Fung Retailing Group, and Mary Ann Tsao, chairwoman of Tsao Foundation, which mainly provides services for the elderly in Singapore. “Any businessman cannot say that now that he has done it, he’s leaving a business [as] the [only] legacy,” Narendra Raval, group chairman of Devki Group of Companies, said on the sidelines of the forum. “Once you reach a certain level, you also think about giving back to society.” Raval said that was the “legacy we want to leave with our children, so they continue justifying and doing the right thing”. Devki Group is the largest private-sector employer in Kenya, producing construction materials including steel, cement, clinker and roofing sheets. Raval said his company aimed to employ 41,000 Africans by 2027, becoming the continent’s single largest private-sector employer as part of his vision to support job creation. He brought his children to the two-day forum, which featured a programme for next-generation members of UHNW families. “Knowledge is more important for any legacy, for any successful business entity,” he said. “That is what we are gaining from this kind of forum, where our children can learn, connect with other family members and listen to them.” The knowledge-sharing was useful to Victor Murthi, founder and CEO of Karya Hutan, which provides technology-driven solutions to promote sustainable forestry in Indonesia. “I’m in a third-generation business, and by observing families in their seventh or eighth generation, we learn how they manage succession, handle differing passions among family members and ensure their vision continues across generations,” he said. Murthi, who also spoke at the event on driving long-term impact through business sustainability, said that people should dispel the misconception that sustainability was loss-making. With the help of advanced technology and next-generation customers’ growing focus on sustainability, some activities around the topic were profitable, he added. “The key is that if you are willing to do the initial investment properly, it can produce a very generous reward,” he said. According to a Standard Chartered survey of 300 global UHNW families and their advisers released on Monday, more than half were considering relocating their family-office locations, 87 per cent believed stronger succession planning could save their families millions, and 76 per cent were open to using artificial intelligence to support wealth decisions amid geopolitical instabilities, digital disruptions and social changes. “The most sophisticated families are now strategically reviewing their entire wealth ecosystem: where it is housed, how it is governed and who makes decisions,” said Ang, who is also Standard Chartered’s head of wealth and retail banking for Greater China and North Asia, in the survey report. “This is not only about mitigating risk – it’s about building resilience in an age of uncertainty,” he said.
