GCG Structuring

private clients / structuring / hnw planning

Wealth planning for high-net-worth individuals in the UAE

01_introduction

Moving significant wealth to the UAE is a sequence, and the order decides the outcome. Settle residency before the tax and structuring position, and assets can already be exposed or locked into arrangements that are hard to unwind. Wealth planning sets that sequence across residency and tax residency, structuring, and succession, planned around the assets a family already holds and the advisors it already uses.

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01
What should a high-net-worth individual settle first when relocating wealth to the UAE?

Settle the current position first, before the UAE one: where each asset is held, in which name, under which country’s rules, and what it is exposed to today.
Relocating is the moment to put these structures in place cleanly, before residency and tax residency are set and before assets move.

From there the sequence runs:

  1. Confirm the residency route, often through Residency by Investment (pillar) or the Golden Visa Dubai investor programme.
  2. Establish UAE tax residency on a sound basis.
  3. Put the holding and protection structures in place for the assets that need them.
  4. Align Succession (pillar) so the structure and the family’s wishes match.

The wrong order is a common and costly mistake, because unwinding a structure afterwards rarely recovers what a clean start preserves.

Residency and tax residency are not the same. Tax residency is what changes the position on wealth held abroad.
For an individual, the main route is presence.

  • 183 days in the UAE across a twelve-month period establishes tax residency on its own, with no visa or nationality condition.
  • A 90-day route is open to UAE and GCC nationals and residents who meet further conditions.

Timing matters.

  • An individual can obtain a Tax Residency Certificate once the test is met.
  • A newly incorporated UAE company cannot be certified until it has existed for twelve months.
  • Where a structure needs treaty access, the order has to be planned.

GCG maps each holding abroad against both UAE rules and the rules where it sits, before anything moves.

Existing structures are neither automatically kept nor discarded. Each is reviewed on its merits.
Most families arrive holding something already: an offshore company, a trust, or a holding structure set up years ago for reasons that may no longer apply.
Each is reviewed for:

 

  • What it still does
  • What it now costs to run
  • How it is treated under UAE rules and the rules where it sits
  • Whether it still fits the family’s position

Some are kept and connected to the new arrangements. Others are wound down or replaced where they cost more in reporting than they are worth.
The aim is one coherent position rather than legacy layers.
GCG runs that review as part of its wider Wealth Structuring work. Where a new holding structure is needed, it often takes the form of a DIFC foundation.

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How GCG approaches HNW wealth planning

GCG works from a full map of the family’s position, its assets, jurisdictions, existing structures and residency, and sets the order of work from it rather than treating residency, structuring and succession as separate jobs. Throughout, the firm coordinates with the family’s existing advisors abroad rather than replacing them, and Peter Ivantsov reviews the plan before it is acted on. GCG structures and protects wealth; it does not manage investments or hold client funds

The family’s assets and intentions are mapped first, and Abu Dhabi is recommended only where the analysis points there, whether because the rest of the structure sits in the ADGM or because the family already has a footprint there. From that point the foundation is built to the same standard as any GCG structure: the charter and by-laws drafted to the family’s position, the council and any guardian set to the control the family wants, and the structure reviewed by Peter Ivantsov before it is registered. GCG builds and maintains it; it does not manage the assets within it.

Speak to GCG about wealth planning

Wealth planning is most effective before residency and structures are set, though it can be corrected afterward. A first conversation establishes where you are and what should be settled first.

free consultation

04_faq

UAE tax residency is established under the UAE’s tax residency rules. Where a Tax Residency Certificate is needed, it is issued for a defined period and renewed when it expires. GCG confirms what is required to establish and maintain the position in each case.

Where possible, before. Planning ahead of residency keeps the most options open and avoids exposing assets during the move. It is still worth doing after residency is in place, but some steps are cleaner and some costs lower when the sequence is set from the start. GCG works with both situations and adjusts the plan to where the individual already is.

GCG expects clients to keep their existing lawyers, accountants and, where relevant, investment advisors, and works alongside them. The firm’s role is the structuring, tax residency and succession position in and from the UAE, coordinated with what those advisors handle elsewhere. This keeps the family’s overall position coherent across jurisdictions rather than split into disconnected pieces.

Wealth structuring is the building of the structures themselves: the foundations, holding companies and related arrangements that hold and protect assets. Wealth planning is the wider work of deciding what a family needs, and in what order, across residency, tax residency, structuring and succession. Planning sets the direction; structuring builds the parts. Most families need both, and GCG delivers them together as part of one Wealth structuring (hub) engagement.