"Experts at Mayur & Co are DIFC Registered WILLs Draftsmen / DIFC Registered Lawyers, who advised expatriates in UAE for many years to help them structure & plan their inheritance in a meaningful manner. As qualified experts we can play an important role in taking you through the critical and a crucial process of registering a WILL at DIFC Courts and ensure you have planned a hassle free future for your family."
Being a global city, Dubai has welcomed thousands of High Net Worth individuals and senior professionals for business and occupation over the last decade. Given the need for asset protection by global investors, an independent body called DIFC WILLs Service Center was established in 2015 which enables registering an English WILLs in Dubai.
WILL is a legal document that permits a person to make decisions on how his estate will be managed and distributed after his death to their next of kin and can appoint guardians for minor children. Basically WILL allows one to communicate one’s wishes clearly and precisely as to how their assets should be distributed after their death.
Without a WILL, the state in which one is reside decides how to distribute their assets to one’s beneficiaries or next of kin according to its laws. This is know as dying intestate, and the resulting process may not produce the results that one would prefer for their survivors. Absence of WILL may lead to grave consequences in jurisdictions like UAE i.e. freezing of bank accounts, forced heirship of assets, guardianship of children etc.
UAE has a system of forced heirship under sharia law wherein a stipulated number of cognates and agnates have a fixed share in the estate of the deceased and no other way of distribution of the deceased’s estate may be determined.
(Image shown here takes an example of a family where the deceased has surviving Father, Mother, Wife, one son and one daughter. The distribution may change if there were grand children or grand parents in the combination.)
Although, the UAE courts allows non-muslim expatriates to apply their home country laws for inheritance matters as per the latest regulations in the country. However, UAE is home to more than 200 nationalities and it's not practical for the UAE Courts to be able to coincide their decision in accordance with one's home country laws in a just manner. Therefore, the courts may follow a certain procedure where they may ask for a probate order from the home country jurisdiction or their country of domicile. The said process may take its own time and keeping in mind the further attestation and translation requirement the process may be lengthy and expensive. Moreover, even after doing the whole process one cannot say for sure that it will be accepted for the distribution of local assets which can put the whole family at peril because of sheer uncertainty of the process.
To avoid the above circumstances one may opt to have a separate UAE WILL so that the long and cumbersome process of law can be avoided to obtain probate in UAE.
On May 2015 a specialized division of DIFC Courts was established as DIFC Wills Services Center under the royal decree that allows non muslim expatriates to register a WILL to decide the inheritance of their UAE Assets. Because it is a part of DIFC, the WILL is registered in English and no need to translate in Arabic therefore the interpretation is as you read and understand before signing the document. Moreover, the probate order for the distribution of assets is also done by the DIFC Courts which is a very streamlined and hassle free process and highly admired by the international investor community.
We are empanelled with DIFC WILLs Services as registered draftsmen and we have assisted many clients with their inheritance plan in the country. We have assisted clients even in the scenario of terminal illness where time was against us but still we were able to successfully help them avoid a long legal process after all what they have been through. Our expertise can work like a panacea for your overarching goal on how you wish to plan and protect the future of your family and loved ones.
If you are looking to register a DIFC WILL and need professional assistance and advice, please get in touch and we will be happy to schedule a virtual appointment for you
