Business families in the Gulf need modern laws of inheritance

“Ilove youTV , but you are not serious people,” says Logan Roy, the fictitious media mogul, to his feuding, grasping children in the series “Succession”. The same may be said by many an anguished tycoon in the Gulf as he struggles to arrange a harmonious handover to the next generation. The current laws are often either non-existent or inadequate for dealing with increasingly complex business structures when the great man dies. Some Gulf governments are beginning to enact laws to settle such family matters harmoniously.Take the Kuwaiti brothers Bassam and Kutayba Alghanim. The pair were embroiled in a succession dispute over their family’s huge conglomerate that lasted for years. At first the brothers sought to divide the business up amicably. But accusations and recriminations ensued, causing bad blood among the extended family. Kuwait’s rulers even stepped in to try to sort it all out.