BLOG
Local Tools Are Falling Short for Global Wealth Planning
A generation ago, a family with homes in three countries, businesses in two, and children studying across continents was an exception. Today, it’s becoming more common. But while lifestyles have changed, many wealth structures haven’t. Wills written in one jurisdiction. Trusts set up under another. Assets are scattered in ways that no single system – tax, legal, or financial – fully anticipates. It’s a reality that many global families are waking up to, often at moments when clarity matters most.
Living across borders, planning in silos
Take the case of a family that built a business empire in Dubai, purchased a second home in London, and sent their children to universities in New York. Over time, what started as a local success story grew into a global footprint. Yet their estate plan remained largely domestic – a single will drafted under UAE law, no structures in place for foreign assets, and little thought given to cross-border tax exposure.
When unexpected illness struck the patriarch, it became clear that local solutions couldn’t stretch to meet global realities. Probate proceedings differed across countries. Forced heirship rules in the UAE clashed with testamentary freedom in the UK. Meanwhile, US gift and estate tax thresholds loomed over plans for supporting the next generation. The family’s wealth was at risk of being fragmented beyond recognition.
Where wealth structures fall short
The risks usually don’t come from obvious negligence. They come from assuming yesterday’s structures will still fit today’s lives.
One of the most common missteps is relying on a single will to govern assets across multiple countries. In jurisdictions that recognise forced heirship, such as the UAE under Shariah principles, assets may not be distributed according to personal wishes, even if a will says otherwise. Conversely, countries like the UK and the US uphold testamentary freedom but impose their own sets of taxes and probate requirements. Without coordinated planning, families can find themselves trapped between systems that don’t recognise each other’s rules.
Liquidity is another blind spot. It’s one thing to own valuable assets; it’s another to have readily available funds when they’re needed most. In one real-world instance, heirs of a deceased entrepreneur had to sell prized real estate holdings under pressure simply to cover estate tax obligations in a foreign jurisdiction.
And then there’s the question of information flow. As families expand, marry, relocate, and diversify holdings, the wealth picture gets increasingly complex. Structures that aren’t coordinated across borders can lead to confusion, disputes, and even litigation.
Building resilient, living structures
For global families, wealth planning needs to be dynamic – a living process, not a one-off exercise.
This often starts with creating multiple wills, each tailored to a specific jurisdiction’s requirements. It can mean establishing cross-border trusts or foundations that provide clarity and continuity across generations. It also means thinking about liquidity upfront to ensure that wherever estate taxes might arise, there’s accessible funding that doesn’t force distressed sales.
Offshore life insurance solutions are increasingly being used for this purpose. Structures like Universal Life (UL) and Indexed Universal Life (IUL) offer families a flexible way to preserve liquidity, grow wealth, and provide cross-border protection. When used thoughtfully, these can become strategic tools.
Above all, planning needs to centre around the emotional reality of families, not just their balance sheets. Cross-border disputes rarely fracture over technicalities alone; they fracture when planning fails to respect the human side of wealth.
Managing fragmentation as a new reality
It would be tempting to think that with enough planning, the world will stay orderly. But the truth is, fragmentation is accelerating. Good cross-border wealth management isn’t about finding a “perfect” structure. It’s about building flexibility into the system and creating wealth plans that can adapt as jurisdictions collide, treaties change, or family circumstances evolve.
It’s also about mindset. The best-prepared families view planning not as a box to tick but as an ongoing conversation that is revisited regularly, updated thoughtfully, and always aligned with both global realities and personal priorities. In a fragmented world, global families don’t have the luxury of thinking locally anymore. They need strategies that preserve not just wealth, but meaning, connection, and the ability to adapt across generations.
Global families will continue to live across systems that don’t always speak the same language legally, financially, or culturally. The role of cross-border planning is not to erase those differences, but to build structures strong enough to carry wealth and flexible enough to carry intention across every border they meet. In a fragmented world, that is what continuity really looks like.
In the UAE, legacy planning cannot be lifted wholesale from another jurisdiction. It must be shaped around the family’s values, while accommodating the realities of a globalised balance sheet.
For some, this means integrating Sharia-compliant structures into a broader cross-border plan. For others, it involves using foundations or trusts to protect assets, while maintaining control mechanisms that reflect the founder’s philosophy.
The most successful transitions are neither purely traditional nor purely modern. They take the discipline of governance from global best practices and anchor it in the cultural context of the family. They preserve the principles that built the wealth while allowing the flexibility to meet the opportunities and risks of the next economy.
The future of wealth management lies in a hybrid model, where AI and human expertise work in tandem to deliver superior outcomes. AI tools serve as an extension of the advisor’s capabilities, enabling them to focus on high-value tasks while automating repetitive ones. We will increasingly see a new pattern over the next decade, where an advisor might use AI to identify trends in a client’s portfolio but rely on their own judgment to tailor the recommendations to align with the client’s broader life goals.
As firms adopt AI-driven platforms, they must do so with a clear understanding of their strengths and limitations. Investors, too, should be cautious not to rely solely on technology.