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Den Lelin, the Research and Strategy Director of Owner.One, shares insights on the latest Owner.One study, highlighted the business-friendly environment in the UAE that played a crucial role in the establishment of the Owner.One in Dubai, among others, in this Q&A with Gulf Time. Dubai-based Owner.One, which provides capital owners with proprietary digital infrastructure to securely store, organize, and keep their capital data transfer-ready, just released the most extensive study on family wealth transfer.
What is Owner.One? Could you please tell more about the company?
Owner.One is an app initially conceived as a friends and family project to tackle the challenges of capital preservation and transfer between generations. As interest grew and inquiries poured in from other families facing similar issues, it became clear that this app could benefit many other capital owners and their families. In 2023, we conducted worldwide research involving capital owners and their family members, uncovering a resonant chord among capital founders globally. This led Owner.One to evolve into a full-fledged company poised to redefine how capital data should be safeguarded, accessed, and shared.
Owner.One provides capital owners with proprietary digital infrastructure to securely store, organize, and keep their capital data transfer-ready. It enables capital owners to overcome the timing dilemma in capital data transfer, ensuring that next owners (family or friends) receive information neither sooner nor later, but exactly on time. Importantly, no third parties are involved, ensuring that private information remains secure and transfers remain unaltered.
As of the moment the study was published (May 2024) — the product is not available for immediate purchase. The waitlist for those wishing to join is from 5 to 15 weeks, depending on the selected type of subscription month. It means that right now, we don’t have available slots, but you can join our waitlist on our website.
What is the one factor that made you open your business in Dubai? Is it about the economic policies and business-friendly private sector laws and regulations or the atmosphere that keeps it busy year-long, packed with global events and exhibitions?
It goes without saying that the business-friendly environment in the UAE is another economic factor that makes it an attractive destination for entrepreneurs.
According to the Financial Times’ “fDi Markets” data, Dubai ranked No. 1 overall in global Greenfield FDI project attraction in 2023, the third successive year it has achieved this ranking. The UAE is moving fast towards a globally integrated economy that offers digital infrastructure, adaptable legislation, a forward-thinking mindset, and great resident visa options and investment.
Owner.One has recently published a report called ‘Penguin Analytics.’ What is the subject of your research?
“Penguin Analytics” delves into the dynamics of capital preservation and transfer between generations among families the world over with a net worth of $3 to $100 million. Our research highlights the critical issues and inefficiencies in the current processes by which capital owners store and transfer information about their assets. Today, the topic is more relevant than ever before. In the next two decades, millennials are set to inherit the largest wealth transfer in human history. Although the path of those transfers appears clear, it hides critical problems: information asymmetry within families and the reliability of third parties.
What was the methodology of your research?
Our approach combined quantitative and qualitative methods to gather a holistic view of the researched issues — in-depth interviews, online and offline surveys, and focus groups. Our analysis
is based on responses from 13,500 capital founders across 18 countries. By the way, when we started our research, the last thing we expected was that it would generate such interest from our target audience, evoke such emotions, and become debated by capital owners and their families. Given the extreme sensitivity of the subject, we did not expect such a huge response rate.
Our initial plan was to get 500 responses; eventually, we ended up with 13,500, and I’m confident to say it’s one of the largest global surveys of high-net-worth individuals on the matter of transferring family wealth data.
What are the key highlights of your latest research?
Well, the results of the survey are different; some figures are impressive, others are disheartening. Responses show that nearly 80% of capital owners believe it will be impossible for their family members to navigate through the information on assets and capital on their own.
Moreover, it is a must to mention the following: 89% of respondents doubt that their trusted individuals and professionals will do everything right at the needed moment, underscoring a lack of confidence in the reliability of external parties. And calculating the losses, we can say that, on average, families lose $310,000 per every $1 million in assets globally during transfer due to gaps in information about exact asset attributes, highlighting the critical issue of information asymmetry within families.
In addition to that, 36% of capital owners surveyed across the 18 countries are willing to accept a loss of 10% to 50% of their wealth during transfer in exchange for an assurance that the remainder will be accurately passed on to the family.