Some have set up family offices to look after their financial affairs, although the idea of professionally run businesses to serve the financial and personal needs of a family group has been slower to catch on in the region than in other parts of the world.
The forerunners of today's family offices are thought to have emerged in Italy during the Renaissance, as rich merchants tried to look after their wealth. Some Swiss private banks also resembled family offices when they first developed in the 18th and 19th centuries.
However, the modern family office really came of age in the 19th century in the US, when the industrial revolution the created dynasties with enormous wealth.