Why Hedge Funds Are Off to Dubai and Switzerland

Should emigration, rather than immigration, be the real concern for aging rich societies in 2026? I’ve lost track of the anecdotal evidence of disaffected working-age contacts relocating from the UK or France to the United Arab Emirates or Switzerland for more predictable — read lower — taxes. The latest is Alan Howard, co-founder of Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP, now a Swiss resident. And the fight for talent is only getting tougher, with former British Prime Minister David Cameron recently warning of an exodus of talented Brits heading to Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Cameron’s right to be concerned, and not just because of recent arrivals in the UAE like Revolut Ltd.’s boss Nikolay Storonsky. While the mega-rich are always flighty, this goes beyond the Monaco-or-bust crowd: A net 110,000 British people aged 16 to 34 emigrated in the year to March, according to Office for National Statistics estimates. It’s not clear where they’ve gone, but relocation requests point to Middle East magnetism. Push factors driving emigration, including strained public finances and a weak white-collar job market, are widening the appeal of pull factors such as low or no personal tax. Bankers and hedge funds like Man Group Plc or Oak Hill Advisors, once wedded to big financial centers, are flocking to the UAE, where $1.1 trillion of sovereign wealth is being deployed.