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A will moves control on death, but incapacity freezes it while the person still owns everything, and the English instrument that fixes it stops at the UAE border. The plan that survives is one where an entity governs the assets and each power has a named successor, put in place while capacity is intact.
Follow the chain in order, or open any term for the full definition and its legal basis.
The legally tested ability to understand relevant information and make and communicate a particular decision when it is needed. When it is lost the person stays the legal owner of their assets and the holder of their offices but can no longer exercise any of them, so control freezes in place rather than passing to anyone.
An English instrument under which a person who still has capacity (the donor) appoints an attorney to manage their property and financial affairs, and which keeps working if the donor later loses capacity. The property and financial affairs power must be made while the donor has capacity and registered with the Office of the Public Guardian before it can be used.
The Irish instrument that lets a person appoint an attorney whose authority endures if they later lose capacity. Under the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 it is registered with the Decision Support Service and activates once notified, and the Act replaced the older wards-of-court system from 26 April 2023.
A document by which one person authorises another to act on their behalf. An ordinary power is an agency: it lets the holder act while the principal has capacity, but it terminates automatically on the principal’s death or loss of legal capacity, which is the exact moment continuity is most needed.
The England and Wales fallback where a person has already lost capacity with no lasting power in place: the Court of Protection appoints a deputy to act for them. It is slower, supervised, more costly and run by the court rather than by someone the family chose, which is the outcome a lasting power exists to avoid.
The UAE court process that takes over when a person loses capacity: the family applies for an interdiction order and the court, on medical evidence, appoints a guardian to manage the person’s affairs. While it runs, bank accounts and assets can be frozen and significant transactions need the court’s approval.
A trust whose governing law lets the person who created it keep defined powers, such as directing investments, without that reservation making the trust invalid. It gives a founder comfort in ceding legal ownership while retaining a measure of influence.
A civil-law wealth-holding structure that owns assets in its own name for a defined purpose or set of beneficiaries, sitting between a company and a trust. Foundations in the DIFC and ADGM give families the control and succession features of a trust within a civil-law structure.
A director will review your enquiry and respond to scope the work and next steps.