Protecting Your Spouse: Lessons from Real Cases
A retired British engineer, resident in Dubai for two decades, passed away unexpectedly in 2022. His estate was modest by local standards: a freehold apartment in the Marina, an Emirates NBD current account, a brokerage account held jointly with his wife. He had been told, more than once, that he ought to make a Will. He had not done so.
His widow, a woman of seventy-one, spent the next eleven months unable to access the joint account, prevented from selling or letting the apartment, and required to attend the personal status court for matters that ought never to have reached a courtroom. Her children, resident abroad, were drawn into proceedings they did not understand.
Compare a near-identical estate, settled the same year, where the testator had registered a DIFC Will some years before. His widow obtained probate within seven weeks. The apartment was conveyed without difficulty. The accounts were released. No court attendance was required of her.
The contrast is not unusual. It is the rule. A surviving spouse should not, in addition to grief, be asked to fight the administrative consequences of a missing document. The instrument that prevents this takes a fortnight to prepare.
Written by the solicitors of LEX Services for the senior expatriate reader.
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