The art of managing wealth

Rental returns in the UAE have been promising, eclipsing those of property hotspots worldwide

- ZAINAB MANSOOR

“When money realises that it is in good hands, it wants to stay and multiply in those hands,” author Idowu Koy-enikan famously said. Wealth management is not an avant-garde concept; wealth, in its primitive form, was measured in resources, cloth and often food. Before currency became a medium of measure and exchange, those in possession of rare metals and food items were considered wealthy. Naturally, those who owned ‘wealth’, wished to retain and grow it.

However, conventional wealth management, similar to wealth, has gone through layers of evolution and disruption to morph into its current format: a specialised form of investment advisory service, designed for affluent individuals with diverse needs. It is a discipline that broadly incorporates financial planning, portfolio management and aggregated financial services, largely to maintain and increase a client’s wealth based on his financial goals and requirements. Engaging the services of boutique firms, private banks, financial institutions and advisors, clients are increasingly keen on building value and wealth.

As methods of managing wealth evolved, so did wealth itself. Today it has become an economic enabler, meriting a clear understanding of who retains it, how it is spent and where it is transitioned to better gauge potential economic scenarios. In 2019, the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) – those with a net worth of $30m or more – totaled 513,244 worldwide. That figure is forecast to grow to 649,331 by 2024, Knight Frank’s The Wealth Report – 2020 suggests.