Who This is for
Title passing is not automatic, and the mortgage, the service charges and the tenancy do not pause while the position is resolved.
Those shares form part of an estate. Until authority is established, there may be nobody who can sign for the company, instruct the bank, renew the licence or pay staff.
Guardianship is the part clients most often have not considered, and the part with the shortest fuse — the question of who cares for a child arises immediately, not after an estate is settled.
It may not be directly effective for assets held here, and relying on it may mean a recognition process starting at the worst possible moment.
It is not obvious, and the applicable framework depends on the registry used, the assets held and the parties involved.
Wills in different jurisdictions can revoke one another by accident. This is a drafting problem, and it is avoidable.
What's Included
How it Works
Assets and intentions
We establish what you own in the UAE, in whose name, and what you want to happen to it. This stage usually surfaces something the client had not thought of — a jointly held account, a property still in a developer’s name pending handover, a shareholding held through a second entity.
Choice of registry
More than one route to registering a will exists in the UAE, and the appropriate one depends on the assets, the emirate and the parties involved. We tell you which applies to your situation and why, rather than defaulting to whichever one we find easiest.
Drafting
The will is drafted to the registry’s requirements and to your instructions, with guardianship and executor provisions written to be usable under pressure by the person who will have to use them.
Review with you
You read it, we amend it, and we explain in plain terms what each clause will do in practice. A will nobody has understood is a will that gets contested.
Execution and registration
The will is signed and registered under the registry’s procedure. Some registries require attendance in person; some accept a remote or representative process, and requirements change. We confirm which applies before you make travel arrangements.
Custody and review
You receive the registration record. We flag the events that should trigger a review: a new property, a new company, a marriage, a divorce, a birth, or a move to another country.
What We Need from You
If some of this is missing, we can still begin. Establishing what you own and how it is held is the first stage of the work rather than a precondition to it.
Timeline and Cost
Drafting is quick. What sets the overall duration is the registry’s own process and the availability of the underlying documents — a title deed that has not been issued, a share certificate nobody can find, a birth certificate that needs attestation. We do not quote a timeline before we know which registry applies and what condition your documents are in.
Our fee is fixed and agreed in writing against a defined scope before we start. It is anchored to the work — a single will, mirror wills for a couple, the complexity of the shareholdings involved — and never to the value of your estate.
Registry fees, translation and attestation are payable to the relevant body and shown to you separately, at cost.
Get a Fixed QuoteWhere it Goes Wrong
A will made abroad is not automatically effective for assets held here, and where it can be relied upon at all it may require a recognition process. That process begins after death — which is to say, at the exact point when the family needs the bank account unfrozen and the company operating.
Clients concentrate on the property and the shares and treat children as covered by the fact of being their parents. The immediate question of who has authority to care for a child is separate from the question of who eventually inherits, and it is the one that arises first.
A standard revocation clause in a later will made in another country can undo a UAE will drafted years earlier. This is a drafting error, not a legal complication, and it is entirely preventable if both documents are visible to whoever drafts the second.
The constitutional documents of the company, and any shareholders’ agreement, govern how shares can move. A will that ignores them can produce an instruction the company is not able to implement — which becomes an argument between the family and the surviving partner.
Naming a relative abroad who does not hold a UAE residence, does not read Arabic and has never dealt with a UAE bank produces a technically valid appointment and a practically useless one.
A new property, a new company or a new account is common in this market. The will is signed once and never revisited, and the newest and often largest asset falls outside it.
Questions
Is this only worth doing for large estates?
No. The consequences of having no will — an account nobody can draw on, a company nobody can sign for, a family dealing with an authority while also dealing with a bereavement — fall hardest on households that cannot absorb the interruption. Size of estate affects the drafting, not the necessity.
I already have a will at home. Do I need another one?
For UAE assets, usually yes. A foreign will may not be directly effective here, and relying on it can mean a recognition process starting at the worst moment. We coordinate the two so they work together rather than against each other.
What actually happens to my company if I have no will?
The shares form part of the estate and pass under whichever framework applies. Until authority is established, there may be nobody able to operate the company or its bank account. The commercial damage tends to come from that interval rather than from the eventual distribution.
Can my will cover assets outside the UAE?
It can be drafted to sit alongside foreign wills, but assets in another country are generally best dealt with by a will made for that country. What matters is that the documents are drafted with knowledge of each other.
Can we do one will for a married couple?
Mirror wills — one each, in matching terms — are the usual approach. A single joint document is rarely the right instrument.
Does registering a will stop it being challenged?
Nothing prevents a challenge. Registration establishes that a valid, executed document exists and is on record, which removes the arguments that would otherwise be about the document itself.
Do I have to attend in person?
It depends on the registry, and requirements change. We confirm what your route requires before you book anything.
What if I move away from the UAE?
Tell us. A will drafted around UAE assets should be reviewed when your residence, your assets or your family circumstances change, and a departure usually changes at least two of the three.