Government

UAE drafts new law to protect elderly

A law to protect elderly people is being drafted by the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Wafa Issa

September 30, 2013

DUBAI // A federal law to protect the elderly concerning medical insurance, negligence and abuse is to be drafted.

The new legislation will be designed to iron out differences in elderly care across the seven emirates and could also review the retirement age.

“We need to draft policies which specifically target the elderly,” Mariam Al Roumi, Minister of Social Affairs, said yesterday. “We want to systemise our approach – there is a lack of legislation which needs to be addressed.

“Currently there are different bodies working with the elderly and each one has its own approach but there is no single binding law.”

Elderly people – defined by the ministry as anyone older than 60 – are thought to make up just more than 4 per cent of the 1.1 million Emiratis in the UAE. However, the ministry estimates that figure will grow to 6 per cent by 2017 and to 11 per cent in 2032.

“The future generation of elderly people will be different, they will be more educated and healthier and they will be able to be more active players in society,” continued Ms Al Roumi.

The new legislation will be introduced as part of a national plan for the elderly, which the ministry hopes to implement from 2014 and is pending cabinet approval.

“There is the gap in protection,” agreed Mariam Al Hammadi, director of elderly care at the Community Development Authority.

“For instance if an elderly person is being subjected to negligence at home we have no powers to intervene. There is no law which gives us the right to enter the house and intervene and help the older person.

“This new legislation will address such gaps and help in unifying regulations and efforts across the country.”

A ministry study comparing the UAE’s services to those in Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, Lebanon and Kuwait found the UAE provided either limited or very limited services in several areas.

These areas included in-house care, specialised medical care and rehabilitation, prioritising elderly services and investment saving funds for the elderly. It also found a limited number of elderly homes. There are only three public homes for the elderly – one in Dubai, one in Ajman and one in Sharjah. Only elderly people with no living relatives are eligible.

wissa@thenational.ae

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”