DIFC Innovation Hub, Julius Baer and Euroclear join forces to address challenges posed by the future of digital asset inheritance

Dubai, UAE; 23 January 2024: DIFC Innovation Hub, the largest start-up and innovation hub in the world operating out of Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the leading global financial centre in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, is collaborating with global Swiss wealth management firm, Julius Baer, and the Financial Market Infrastructure Euroclear, to lead on tackling challenges in the digital asset estate planning space. 

Aligned with the UAE’s vision to help family businesses maximise their contribution to the economy, the collaborative innovation project, organised by DIFC Innovation Hub, will bring together innovators, investors, and subject matter experts from across the wealth management value chain to explore how families can best use technology to manage rapidly expanding portfolios of tokenised and digital assets.

DIFC’s Innovation Hub experts will work closely with Julius Baer’s global innovation team and Euroclear’s innovation centre of excellence for a three-month sprint that will result in a white paper detailing a future-oriented solution for succession planning relating tokenisation applied to multi-generational inheritance. The analysis and subsequent findings will serve as a blueprint for other geographies looking to turn similar challenges into opportunities.  

It is estimated that AED 3.67trn (USD 1trn) in assets will be transferred to the next generation in the Middle East over the coming decade. However, only 24 per cent of High-Net-Worth Individuals have a full estate plan in place. Fast adoption of various digital asset classes by individuals and businesses also poses potential complexities to a seamless execution of estate plans currently in place. The DIFC Innovation Hub, Julius Baer and Euroclear collaboration will help bring tangible solutions to this global challenge. 

Mohammad Alblooshi, Chief Executive Officer, DIFC Innovation Hub, commented: “The region is witnessing a trend of generational wealth being deployed across a variety of digital asset classes to diversify and future-proof their portfolios. By bringing together global leading entities across wealth management, financial services providers, tech disruptors and regulators, this newly launched innovation project will help transform one of the largest, underserved markets in the region and open doors to a more inclusive and tech enabled future for family businesses and the wealth management industry.”

Alireza Valizadeh, CEO, Julius Baer (Middle East) Ltd, said: “Generational wealth transfer is gaining momentum in the UAE, and we, as Julius Baer, are in a unique position to advise our clients having had our origins as a family business. On the occasion of Julius Baer’s 20-year anniversary in Dubai, I am hoping that this innovation project will showcase how we can work together to stay relevant to our future clients and provide a vision highlighting the evolution of the private banking industry especially with the onset of digital assets.”

Philippe Laurensy, Head of Group Strategy, Product Management and Innovation at Euroclear, added: “As a trusted financial market infrastructure we have a strong commitment to collaborate with the market providing innovative solutions to our clients. We are extremely pleased to be working with DIFC Innovation Hub and Julius Baer on what we see as a transformative journey to address market gaps and create efficiencies by harnessing the power of tokenisation. By validating and unlocking the benefits of smart contracts we have the potential to redefine the narrative of wealth management, creating solutions that could span generations.”

Dubai’s strategic location along with DIFC’s position as the region’s most experienced hub for supporting global and regional family-owned businesses, High-Net-Worth (HNW) and Ultra-High-Net-Worth (UHNW) Individuals makes it the ideal testing ground for innovative solutions and POCs tackling the future of inheritance and wealth management. Combined with Swiss Wealth Manager, Julius Baer’s experience in advising UHNW and HNW business families in the wealth transfer process in the Middle East, and Euroclear’s renewed purpose focused on innovation bringing safety, efficiency and connection in the financial market for sustainable economic growth, the innovation project aims to solve challenges faced by individuals when creating inheritance plans to better manage the future.