Educational guide, not legal advice.

The drawer test

Start with one question: what year did you sign it?

If the answer is 2019, 2020 or 2021, the framework now includes reforms that arrived after some or all of those signing dates. Your signed wording remains the same; a 2026 review applies the current rules to it.

Age alone can leave a will fully effective. The review checks the original choices against today's governing law, enforcement path and registry options. The five questions that structure that review are at the bottom of this page.

What changed since you signed

The legal framework around an older UAE will has changed across governing law, registry access and enforcement. A current review checks how the existing clauses operate under those rules.

The dated history, legal instruments and sources are maintained in the UAE inheritance reform changelog.

A will records choices about governing law, enforcement and registry. Since roughly 2020, all three have changed.

Area one: the default law. A 2019 will predates the 2020 amendment to art. 17.1 of the Civil Code. A will signed after that amendment and before 1 February 2023 was drafted under its nationality-law default: inheritance follows the law of the deceased's country of nationality, while UAE real estate remains governed by UAE law. Since 1 February 2023, non-Muslim residents have sat inside a civil personal status framework that applies unless a party invokes their own national law, and the new federal personal status law has been in force since April 2025. The mechanics changed from a nationality default to an opt-in structure. A review reads the governing-law wording clause by clause to confirm where it routes the estate today.

Area two: the enforcement path. Since 14 March 2025, Dubai Law No. 2 of 2025 gives the DIFC Courts exclusive jurisdiction over the enforcement of DIFC non-Muslim wills, under article 31(5), with a direct enforcement writ. DIFC wills now move through the DIFC Courts for probate. This change benefits people who registered early: the DIFC Courts' own FAQ describes uncontested probate in a few weeks, compared with the months, and sometimes more than a year, that an estate without a registered will can spend in court. A review checks whether the clauses support the intended result under that enforcement path.

Area three: the registry options. The options available today differ from those available before signing. ADJD registers a bilingual will remotely, valid across all seven emirates, with administrative deputisation through the Dubai Courts for Dubai assets, and since 2025 it accepts Muslim expats from outside the GCC. The Dubai Courts notary route has been in decline since Law 2/2025 rearranged enforcement. Registry choice is one of the five audit questions for a reason: a current comparison establishes whether the original choice still fits. ADJD charges AED 950 per will on its published schedule, so AED 1,900 for a couple registering one each (2026); the DIFC Full Will is AED 10,000 single and AED 15,000 for mirror wills (official DIFC schedule, 2026).

What a review actually means

Review comes before any decision to re-register. It is a reading: the document on one side of the table, the current rules on the other, and a qualified pair of eyes checking whether the registry choice, governing-law wording, executor appointment, guardianship nomination, asset schedule and revocation clause still do what you meant them to do.

Three outcomes are possible. The will goes back in the drawer unchanged, with a note of the review date. The will needs a targeted update, such as a refreshed schedule or changed nomination. Or changes in your family, assets or other documents call for a rebuilt structure.

The reading also covers the mechanical layer, because formalities are where old documents get tested. A DIFC will needs two witnesses who receive no benefit under it. An ADJD will exists in three signed sets, in English and Arabic, with a legal translation by a Ministry of Justice licensed translator. For a document assembled from a template years ago, the review checks that these basics were completed properly and that the witnesses and executor named then remain reachable and appropriate.

This page lists the changes. Clause-by-clause analysis belongs to the review. Wills prepared through the SmartWills process and reviewed by UAE-licensed partner lawyers come with a scheduled Legacy Review.

Life moved too

The law is one trigger set. Your own facts are the other, and they move more often.

Marriage changes who your default heirs would be. Divorce changes it again, and a will that still names a former spouse as executor requires review. A child born after you signed sits outside the guardianship nomination you wrote for the children you had then; how nominations work, and what the court does with them, is covered in our guide to guardianship of minor children in the UAE. A property purchase raises its own flag, because UAE real estate answers to UAE law under article 17 of the Civil Transactions Law, whatever any foreign document says. New company shares raise another: shares omitted from a will fall to default succession, and untangling that in court takes place while the deceased's bank accounts, including the joint ones, sit frozen until the court issues its documents, a wait that runs six to eighteen months at minimum when the paperwork is unclear.

Then there is the quiet one. If you signed any other will, in any country, after your UAE will, its revocation wording may revoke the UAE document unintentionally. Coordinated wills use territorial clauses, each document confined to its own jurisdiction. Reading both texts establishes whether they are coordinated that way.

Last updated: 23 July 2026 · Changelog: 2026-07-23: first published.

Frequently asked questions

What your answers mean?

Every answer stable. Signed after April 2025, registry choice you would repeat, assets and family unchanged, and your UAE will is the latest will you signed: the framework your will was drafted under is the framework in force. Date a note, put it back.

Signed before February 2023 or before April 2025. Age alone leaves validity unanswered. It shows that the document was drafted against a default structure that has since changed, so its wording deserves a read against the current rules.

Assets or family changed. The legal architecture may fit while the facts inside are stale. The review then concentrates on schedules and nominations, which is the lighter kind of update.

Another will signed since. Question 5 outranks the others. Revocation wording decides whether your UAE will is still the operative one, and that check comes first.

Is a 2019 DIFC will still enforceable?

A 2019 registration remains a registration after the rules change. Since 14 March 2025, Dubai Law No. 2 of 2025 gives the DIFC Courts exclusive jurisdiction over enforcement of DIFC non-Muslim wills, with a direct enforcement writ. For an existing DIFC will, enforcement became more direct. The review question is whether the choices inside the document, from executor to asset schedule, still match your situation in 2026.

Do I need to re-register after the 2025 changes?

Start with a review before making any decision about re-registration. The 2025 changes rearranged the enforcement path and brought the new federal personal status law into force. Existing registrations remain in place, while the review establishes whether their wording still delivers the intended result. Updating follows only where that reading finds a mismatch.

My will predates the civil framework, does it still apply to me?

The civil personal status framework for non-Muslims took effect on 1 February 2023 and applies to non-Muslim residents unless a party invokes their own national law. A will signed before that date was drafted when the operative default was the 2020 Civil Code amendment, pointing inheritance to the law of your nationality. The document remains in the system and now operates inside a later structure. A review reads whether its governing-law wording still routes the estate as intended.

What if I added a property since I signed?

UAE real estate is governed by UAE law under article 17 of the Civil Transactions Law, whatever any foreign will says. A purchase after signing therefore raises two questions: whether your will's asset wording reaches assets acquired later, and whether the registry route you chose still fits a portfolio that now includes a title deed. Both are document-reading questions. Bring the title deed to the review along with the will.

How often should a UAE will be reviewed?

UAE law sets no statutory review interval. The working answer has two layers. The first is a scheduled Legacy Review. The second is the trigger list above: a new row in the changelog of rules, or a change in your own facts, brings the reading forward.

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