Dying without a plan for your UAE assets is one of the few estate mistakes that cannot be fixed after the fact. If a non-Muslim expat dies in the UAE without a registered will, Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2022 on Civil Personal Status now applies by default: half of the UAE estate goes to the surviving spouse and the other half is split equally among the children, unless the deceased had formally opted into their home country's inheritance law.
Bank accounts are typically frozen the moment the bank is notified of a death, and release only follows a court-supervised succession process. Registering a will with the DIFC Wills Service Centre or the ADJD non-Muslim wills registry, and naming a guardian for minor children, is worth doing while you are healthy and able to.
Read the full guide, including a DIFC vs ADJD comparison, the documents you need, and a step-by-step registration process, on Yalah Dubai: https://yalahdubai.com/inheritance-wills-expats-dubai-2026/
