The Quiet Cost of Dying Without a Will in the UAE
The costs of intestacy in the UAE are not, in our experience, the costs clients imagine. They are not, primarily, the loss of one's preferred distribution. They are the operational consequences that follow in the months after the death.
Bank accounts, including joint accounts, are typically frozen on receipt of the death certificate. They remain frozen until a succession certificate is issued by the court, a process that can take six to twelve months in a contested estate. During that time, the surviving spouse may have no access to family funds.
Property cannot be sold, let, or in some cases occupied, without the consent of all heirs, identified and quantified by the court. Where heirs are minor or resident abroad, the practical obstacles compound.
Custody of minor children, in the absence of a Will appointing a guardian, becomes a matter for the personal status court, which will apply principles that may produce an outcome neither parent would have chosen.
None of this is dramatic. All of it is predictable. And all of it is avoided by a document that takes a fortnight to prepare and a morning to sign.
Written by the solicitors of LEX Services for the senior expatriate reader.
Trusts, Foundations and the Senior Expat
When a Will alone is not enough, and how structures available in the UAE and beyond can preserve wealth across generations.
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