Gulf Family Business Succession and Law Reform

In the Gulf’s vast family empires, succession is becoming the most dangerous moment of all. As founding tycoons age, businesses worth billions are sliding into paralysis, undone not by markets but by inheritance disputes that echo the drama of Succession. In this episode, we explore why traditional laws struggle to manage modern conglomerates, how sprawling family trees intensify rivalries, and what high-profile feuds reveal about the cost of getting succession wrong. As governments like the UAE step in with new legal frameworks for family firms, the story asks whether law can succeed where family harmony has failed—and whether these reforms can secure the future of some of the region’s most powerful companies.https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2023/06/01/business-families-in-the-gulf-need-modern-laws-of-inheritance