Wealth Structuring
Trusts, foundations, and holding architecture designed for clarity, continuity, and the realities of cross-border families.
Dubai International Financial Centre
Private capital, advised across generations.
We are a boutique advisory firm for families, founders, and private investors. From our base in the DIFC, we help clients structure, invest, and pass on private wealth, with one partner accountable from the first meeting to the last detail.
Independent by structure
Dubai · DIFC
Private Wealth & Capital Advisory
Boutique
A small, deliberately limited roster of client relationships, each held closely.
Independent
We are paid by our clients, not by the products we recommend.
Cross-border
We work across the Gulf, Europe, and international markets.
The Firm
A counsel built around the client, not the product shelf.
Burke Wilte Partners advises a small number of families and principals. We do not sell funds and we do not chase scale. Our focus is the financial decisions that matter most to a family, and the time they take to get right.
Headquartered in the Dubai International Financial Centre, we work where Gulf capital meets global markets. That work covers the structuring of wealth, the building of private portfolios, and the planning that helps it pass from one generation to the next.
- A single partner accountable for every relationship
- Fee-based, fully independent advice
- Strict confidentiality, always
Capabilities
What we do, and the care we bring to it.
Private Markets
Disciplined access to private equity, private credit, and direct co-investments, sourced and assessed on the merits.
Investment Advisory
Portfolio construction grounded in your objectives, risk tolerance, and time horizon, not a house view imposed from above.
Family Office Services
Governance, reporting, and succession frameworks that keep families aligned and capital purposefully directed.
Liquidity & Transitions
Counsel through company sales, exits, and major liquidity events, from preparation to the redeployment that follows.
Philanthropic Strategy
Structuring giving with the same rigour as investing, so that intent and impact remain in step.
Approach
Three commitments that shape every engagement.
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Listen first
We begin with your circumstances and your intentions, not a pre-built solution. Good advice is impossible without genuine understanding.
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Advise without conflict
Our independence is structural. We hold no product mandates and earn nothing from what we recommend, only from the counsel we provide.
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Stay for the long term
We measure success in decades and relationships, not quarters and transactions.
Partners
Few in number. Close in attention.
James Burke
Founding Partner
Two decades advising international families on structuring and private markets across London, Geneva, and the Gulf.
Elena Wilte
Founding Partner
A background in private banking and family governance, with a focus on succession and cross-border continuity.
Karim Haddad
Partner, Private Markets
Sourcing and diligence across regional private equity and direct co-investment opportunities.
Our partners advise personally. Introductions are made directly, never through a call centre or an intermediary.
Perspective
Notes from the desk.
The handover problem
Most Gulf family wealth was built in a single generation. The next transfer is the first time many of these structures have been tested. Preparing the family, not only the balance sheet, is the part that gets neglected.
Co-investment without the crowd
Direct deals are how serious capital now accesses private markets. The discipline is not in finding opportunities, it is in passing on the ninety that do not clear the bar so you can commit to the one that does.
Simplicity is a strategy
Complexity is sold as sophistication. In practice, the structures that survive scrutiny, regulators and the death of a founder are the ones a family can actually explain to itself.
Enquiries
A conversation, in confidence.
We take on a limited number of new relationships each year. If you would value an independent perspective on your wealth, we would be glad to hear from you.
Telephone
+971 4 941 25758
Office
Level 32, Gate Precinct
Dubai International Financial Centre
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Make an enquiry
Dubai International Financial Centre
Dubai, United Arab Emirates