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I understand the legal differences upon ones death is different to the UK. I am currently negotiating a Will for my spouse and I before we move out next week.

Obviously its always good to have one, but does anyone know the pitfalls if you dont. In the UK it automatically passes to your next of kin in the absence of a Will. However I understand that UAE law entitles first born son, or parents upon the husbands death. In which case If I get run over on the SZR, my wife gets bugger-all.

Any thoughts?

I've heard around from people who have had wills made in the UAE for their family that they have been told that by adding the line

"This will for Mr./Mrs. Soandso Supercedes all current and future UAE law"

or something similar automatically rules out the transfer of assets to the first born son. You would need to verify this. Try heading to a lawyer and seeking their advice.

RossBaku

the law regarding wills pertains to assets and bank accounts (of expats) held soley or jointly in the uae, it does not impact on assets that are held outside the country, and which may fall under a seperate will and executor.

Thanks dbxsoul, as most of my assets are UK based, this helps a lot.

The normal procedure to have any (UAE) assets distributed as per your wishes, would be to draft a Will & Testament in English, Have it translated into Arabic and then Attested. As this attestation is simply to ensure the validity of the translation and authentication of the document it could probably be done at a UAE consulate or even a police station (UAE).

Keep the document in a safe place in the UAE for convenience sake. Under UAE Law, all in-country assets of a deceased are frozen on publication of his/ her death (bank accounts in particular). If you have dependants, who have no access to their own finances during this time, you can obviously see the problem.
This can be a I posted a tip a while back which was actually given to me by a bank employee to offer some relief in the event of the death of the “breadwinner”. It seemed like a practical solution. Make out an undated, signed cheque to your spouse, keep this in a safe place, if anything were to happen the cheque should immediately be completed and presented to the bank; the reasoning is that it takes 2 to 3 days before the death is fully publicised, this offers a window of opportunity to withdraw a reasonable amount of money (before the accounts are frozen) to ensure that the necessities are taken care of while the estate is processed.

dbxsoul wrote:....Make out an undated, signed cheque to your spouse, keep this in a safe place, if anything were to happen the cheque should immediately be completed and presented to the bank.....

Great idea, thanks.