Ma'an Legacy & Legal Consultancy

Why do we see Will drafting as a conversation first, and a document second?

A will is often treated as a document to tick off a list. In practice, it works best as the outcome of a much deeper thought process.

Before anything is drafted, the real work is in understanding a person's family circumstances: their nationality and residence, their family circumstances, the assets they hold in the UAE and beyond, and what they actually want to achieve for the people they care about.

This matters because there is no single solution that suits everyone. A UAE national with property and children has different considerations to an expatriate with business interests spread across two countries.

The right structure follows from the circumstances, not the other way around.

Hence, the readily available templates for writing a Will can be appear to be a bargain today but instead it can become a burden for your family tomorrow.

Not just on paper, but in practice.

Sharing this interactive tool that weighs how prepared your family actually is in times of emergency. It is a private check and asks a few honest questions and gives you a clear picture of where things stand.

Most people are surprised by what it surfaces.

https://maan-continuity-quiz.netlify.app/

The Company Nobody Planned For

A founder’s sudden demise leaves the business with three shareholders and no defined pathway for how his stake should transition.

Succession planning is not a box-ticking exercise; it preserves continuity when unforeseen events occur.

Ma'an aligns business succession with personal estate planning well before circumstances become urgent.

Speak with our team at Ma'an about structuring your business for what comes next.

A joyous occasion at Ma’an: Celebrating another year of intergenerational planning! 💃🏻✨

Feeling incredibly grateful to my amazing team for making it possible to reach so many families, spark meaningful conversations, and help them find solutions to thoughtfully transfer their wealth to future generations.

Here’s to creating lasting legacies, one family at a time. ❤️

As we know both UAE’s infrastructure and laws are ever evolving.

Initially all UAE residents, expats and nationals alike came under Sharia law -being the law of the land for all legal matters including inheritance distribution.

As the laws evolved, Wills were introduced, initially for asset protection exclusively for expat non-Muslims.

While writing a Will was still available only to non-Muslims, towards the end of 2018, the UAE introduced Foundations. This structure is specifically designed to allow people of all communities including Muslims to hold and transfer assets in a way that worked for them, legally and within their values.

With UAE’s forward-thinking rule enhancements, a few years later, in 2022, Wills were also introduced for expat Muslims in the UAE.

The Will & Foundation structures together have made passing down legacies comfortable for members of all communities including nationals.

So today, the conversation is no longer about whether a solution exists. It is about what suits a family’s circumstances.

Based on assets, jurisdictions and long-term perspective, we are able to guide families towards the structure that serves them best.

We've often come across scenarios where real estate, such as, an apartment in a Dubai building, or land in a family's home country, became the source of years of legal uncertainty, simply because there was no documented instruction. A single asset caused an enormous amount of avoidable difficulty for the people left to resolve it.

The younger you are when you put clarity in place, the longer that clarity serves you. Through marriages, children, business ventures, new assets, the life you build should be shaped by your wishes, not left to default.

If you've been waiting for the right moment to begin, consider this your nudge.

A legacy plan is not a single document.

Many families assume a will is all that's needed. In truth, it's only the foundation. A comprehensive plan is a coordinated system of instruments, designed to work together to protect what you've built, and the people you've built it for.

Scroll through to see what it encompasses: a registered will, trusts and holding structures, business succession documentation, powers of attorney, a letter of wishes, digital asset instructions, and a current asset inventory.

The value lies in their coherence.

At Ma'an, we build this structure alongside families. The details are on the final slide.