Quick Take

For many families, entrepreneurs and investors in the UAE, wealth no longer sits neatly in one place.

A family estate may include Dubai property, company shares, bank and brokerage accounts, investment portfolios and, increasingly, digital assets such as crypto holdings, tokenized investments and digital wallets.

This changes the succession conversation.

It is no longer enough to ask simply, “Do I have a Will?”

The more important questions are:

What exactly does my Will cover? Where are my assets located? Who can access them? Who will manage my business interests? And will my family know what to do when the time comes?

For eligible non-Muslim individuals, the DIFC Courts Wills Service provides a structured framework for passing on certain UAE assets and making guardianship arrangements.

The introduction of the DIFC Digital Assets Will adds another important dimension, recognizing that modern estates increasingly extend beyond traditional property, shares and bank accounts.

For families building wealth in the UAE, this is an important reminder: succession planning needs to evolve with the assets you own.

Why This Matters Now

Consider the estate of a successful entrepreneur living in Dubai.

They may own a family home and several investment properties. They may hold shares in a UAE free zone company, maintain accounts with multiple banks and investment platforms, and hold part of their wealth through digital assets.

Their children may attend school in Dubai, while other family members live abroad.

If something unexpected happens, several questions arise immediately:

• Who inherits the Dubai property?
• What happens to the company shares?
• Who can deal with the banks and investment accounts?
• How will digital assets be identified and accessed?
• Who will care for minor children?
• Who has the authority to administer the estate?
• Will an existing Will prepared overseas deal effectively with UAE-based assets?

These questions are interconnected.

For a family office, therefore, estate planning is not simply about preparing a legal document. It is about ensuring that family protection, asset ownership, business continuity and succession planning work together.

Understanding the DIFC Wills Framework

The DIFC Courts Wills Service provides eligible non-Muslim individuals with a mechanism for determining how qualifying assets should pass following death and, where relevant, for making guardianship arrangements for minor children.

The framework is supported by Dubai Law No. 15 of 2017 and the DIFC Wills and Probate Registry Rules.

Depending on the individual’s circumstances and assets, DIFC Courts provides different Will options, including those addressing broader estates as well as specific categories such as property, financial assets, business interests, digital assets and guardianship.

Choosing between them should not begin with the Will itself.

It should begin with an asset map.

What does the individual own? Where is each asset legally situated? How is it held? Is it owned personally, jointly, through a company or through another structure?

Only after answering those questions can a family properly determine what succession arrangements may be required.

1. Property: What Happens to Your UAE Real Estate?

For many internationally mobile families, UAE real estate represents a significant part of their wealth.

This may include a primary residence, investment apartments, villas, land or other property interests.

A DIFC Property Will may be relevant for qualifying real estate situated in Dubai and/or Ras Al Khaimah.

But effective planning requires more than listing a property.

Families should understand:

• how the property is currently owned;
• whether there is a mortgage;
• who should ultimately inherit it;
• how ownership should be divided between beneficiaries;
• who will administer the estate; and
• what should happen if an intended beneficiary dies before the testator.

These considerations become particularly important where a family owns several properties or where beneficiaries live in different countries.

The objective is not simply to decide who receives the property.

It is to create a clear route from today’s ownership to tomorrow’s inheritance.

2. Business Interests: Succession Does Not Stop at the Family Home

For entrepreneurs, one of the most valuable assets in an estate may not be property at all.

It may be the business.

Company shares can carry economic value, voting rights, dividend entitlements and, importantly, control.

If a shareholder dies without coordinated succession arrangements, uncertainty over those shares can quickly become an operational issue for the company.

Questions may arise around:

• who inherits the shares;
• who has authority to deal with the transfer;
• who can exercise shareholder rights;
• what happens to dividends;
• whether existing constitutional or shareholder documents restrict transfers; and
• how management and banking relationships continue during the transition.

For a family-owned company, this can affect far more than inheritance.

It can affect business continuity.

This is why company shares should be reviewed alongside shareholder agreements, constitutional documents, holding structures and wider succession arrangements.

A Will may determine who should inherit an interest, but the broader corporate structure must also be capable of supporting that transition.

For family businesses, estate planning and governance planning should speak to each other.

3. Financial Assets: Access Is Not the Same as Ownership

Bank and investment accounts are another important part of succession planning.

Families sometimes assume that a spouse or close relative will simply be able to access an account when required.

In practice, death can trigger restrictions while the relevant bank, court and estate procedures are completed.

This can become particularly challenging where a family relies heavily on one individual’s accounts for household expenditure, investments or other financial commitments.

A proper estate review should therefore identify relevant:

• bank accounts;
• brokerage accounts;
• investment accounts;
• securities;
• joint accounts; and
• other financial holdings.

The question is not only who should inherit the money?

Families should also consider how the estate will function during the period between death and eventual distribution.

Liquidity planning can therefore be just as important as inheritance planning.

4. Digital Assets: The New Succession Challenge

This is where modern estate planning becomes particularly interesting.

A generation ago, an executor could often identify an individual’s principal assets through property records, company documents and bank statements.

Today, substantial wealth may exist digitally.

This can include crypto assets, tokenised assets, digital investment holdings and wallets.

And unlike a traditional bank account, identifying an asset does not necessarily mean it can be accessed.

Digital assets may depend on private keys, passwords, wallet architecture, platform rules, custody arrangements and secure records.

This creates a unique succession problem:

Your family may know that an asset exists without having any practical way to access it.

DIFC Courts introduced its Digital Assets Will as part of a suite of digital services announced at GITEX Global 2024. The framework enables eligible individuals to make succession arrangements for digital assets using the DIFC Courts’ non-custodial wallet infrastructure.

This development sits alongside the wider evolution of DIFC’s digital-assets legal framework, including DIFC Law No. 2 of 2024.

The broader message for wealth holders is important.

Digital assets should no longer sit outside the estate-planning conversation.

They should be identified, documented and incorporated into succession planning with the same seriousness as property, company shares and investment accounts.

5. Guardianship: Succession Planning Is Also About People

For parents, the most important part of an estate plan may have nothing to do with money.

It may be deciding who should care for their children.

The DIFC Wills framework allows qualifying individuals to make guardianship arrangements for minor children in relevant circumstances, subject to UAE law.

This deserves particular attention for internationally mobile families.

A couple may live in Dubai with their children while grandparents, siblings and other close relatives live in Europe, Africa, Asia or elsewhere.

If both parents were unexpectedly unable to care for the children, the practical questions could become immediate.

Who should step in?

Does that person live in the UAE?

Who should be contacted?

What arrangements would need to be made for the children’s schooling, residence and day-to-day care?

Guardianship planning gives families an opportunity to think through these questions before an emergency occurs.

The Executor: Choosing the Person Who Will Carry the Plan Forward

A carefully prepared Will still needs someone capable of implementing it.

That is the executor.

The executor’s responsibilities can include identifying and protecting estate assets, dealing with liabilities, maintaining appropriate records and ultimately distributing the estate to beneficiaries.

For a straightforward estate, this may be relatively manageable.

For a family with several properties, businesses, investments, international beneficiaries and digital assets, the role can become significantly more demanding.

The executor should therefore be selected carefully.

Trust matters.

But so do capability, availability and an understanding of the complexity of the estate.

A Will Is Important. But It Is Not the Entire Succession Plan.

One of the most important distinctions for families to understand is that preparing a Will does not automatically solve every succession issue.

Consider a founder who owns:

Dubai property + UAE company shares + international investments + bank accounts + digital assets.

The Will is one part of the picture.

The family may also need to consider:

ownership structures → shareholder arrangements → banking access → liquidity → governance → digital access → guardianship → succession

If these elements have been arranged independently, gaps can emerge.

For example, a Will may say who should inherit company shares, while a shareholder agreement contains restrictions affecting how those shares can actually be transferred.

Or an individual may leave digital assets to a beneficiary without having created a secure mechanism through which those assets can be identified and accessed.

Good succession planning therefore requires coordination.

The Family Office Perspective

At Dawia Family Office, we approach succession planning as part of a family’s wider wealth architecture.

Before focusing on documents, we help clients understand the complete picture:

What do you own?

Where is it held?

Who controls it today?

Who should control or inherit it tomorrow?

And are the legal, financial and operational arrangements aligned with that intention?

Depending on the family’s circumstances, this can include asset mapping, property and company-share reviews, digital-asset succession planning, business continuity preparation, guardianship considerations, executor and trustee discussions, and coordination with qualified legal professionals.

This is particularly important for internationally mobile families whose wealth may span several jurisdictions.

A DIFC Will can be an important component of the structure.

But the objective is bigger than preparing a Will.

It is to ensure that wealth can move from one generation to the next without unnecessary uncertainty around ownership, control or family intentions.

Because succession planning is ultimately not about preparing for death.

It is about protecting everything that has been built during a lifetime.

Plan early. Structure properly. Protect your legacy.

Dawia Family Office