News and Events

December 2018

Where do UAE Millionaires keep their money?
Do you wonder why many people want to get rich? And how many of those worked hard to be so?

Too many people out there are offering ridiculous ideas on how you can become rich. Many of those ideas are about cutting back.

But what do the fortunate ones do once they join the high-net-worth club? For one, they don't keep their piles of cash under the mattress or let their fortunes sit idly in a bank account.

According to the recent study by New World Wealth, a company that tracks millionaires and billionaires has offered some insights into how the UAE's super wealthy invest or allocate their money in order to get richer.

Over the past two decades, the UAE has seen the population of the super rich increased significantly and as of the latest count, at least 88,700 millionaires now call the UAE home. These individuals are so rich that their combined net assets, estimated to be $470 billion, account for more than half (51 per cent) of the total private wealth held in UAE.

The study found that the Richest in UAE with assets of at least $1 million (Dh3.6 million) carefully invest their money in something substantial. They keep these fortunes either by investing in a company or buying owned properties in popular destinations like New York or London, or acquiring stocks, gold and other commodities.

New World Wealth found that millionaires keep the biggest proportion of their wealth (26 per cent) in non-liquid assets, such as business interests.

Also a significant amount, equivalent to 24 per cent of what they own, are placed in equities, followed by apartments, villas or properties (23 per cent).

Only a very small amount, about 16 per cent, are actually kept in cash or bank accounts, as well as in alternative investments (11 per cent), which include commodities private equity products and structured products and collectables.