British expats in the UAE: DIFC and ADGM wills, sharia, and your UK estate

If you are a non-Muslim British expat in the UAE, you now have a real choice over how your estate is handled, and sharia is no longer the automatic default it once was. You can register a will through the DIFC in Dubai, have one notarised through the ADGM in Abu Dhabi, or make an English will. What none of those does, on its own, is deal with your UK assets or switch off UK inheritance tax. The job is to match the right document to where your assets actually are.

Here is how the options compare, and the parts people most often get wrong.

The sharia question, answered properly

Most British expats arrive having heard one rule: die in the UAE and sharia decides everything, including a fixed small share for your wife. That is now too crude.

Federal Decree Law No. 41 of 2022 came into force on 1 February 2023 and gave non-Muslims a separate framework. A non-Muslim can leave a will covering all of their property in the UAE. If there is no will, the federal default is now half of the estate to the surviving spouse and the other half shared equally between the children, with no distinction between sons and daughters. For British families used to assuming the wife would receive only a small fixed fraction, that is a different starting point.

Sharia has not vanished, though. UAE law still treats inheritance as a matter of public order, it still applies to Muslims, and it can still come into play in mixed or unplanned estates. The honest message is that the risk for non-Muslims now comes less from an unavoidable default rule and more from failing to use the right route, failing to register or coordinate documents properly, or assuming overseas assets will follow the same path as UAE assets.

DIFC wills (Dubai)

The DIFC Courts Wills Service is the best-known common-law route for non-Muslims, run jointly by the Government of Dubai and the DIFC Courts. To use it you must not be Muslim and never have been, you must be at least 18, and you must either own assets in the UAE or have minor children living in Dubai or Ras Al Khaimah. You do not need UAE residence or a particular visa status.

You choose from several will types, and the choice affects scope and cost. A Full Will covers movable and immovable UAE assets and can include guardianship for minor children living in Dubai or Ras Al Khaimah. There are also narrower wills for up to five UAE properties, up to five UAE shareholdings, up to ten UAE bank or brokerage accounts, and digital assets.

The pricing is clear and, by local standards, on the higher side. A single Full Will is AED 10,000 and a pair of mirror Full Wills is AED 15,000. The narrower wills run from AED 5,000 to AED 7,500. There is a grant of probate fee of USD 1,500, and any change costs AED 550 per will, because the DIFC does not accept codicils. If you buy a new qualifying asset, a limited will has to be replaced with a fresh one, which catches people who treat it as a one-off.

The appeal of the DIFC is administration inside a familiar, English-language, court-based system. The process is fully digital: wills are registered with electronic signatures, can be done virtually from anywhere, and witnesses can join the video call from anywhere too. For Dubai assets, UAE bank accounts, company interests or guardianship, it is the cleanest option to explain.

The limit is just as important. A DIFC Full Will can list foreign assets, but executing against assets outside the UAE still depends on the law where those assets sit. A London flat and UK investment accounts stay inside the English probate and tax system, whatever your DIFC will says. The DIFC is strongest as a UAE-focused tool, not as a single document that replaces coordinated UK planning.

ADGM wills (Abu Dhabi)

The ADGM works differently, and the difference matters. Its wills service is a notarisation channel run with the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, not a separate probate registry like the DIFC's. The ADGM is genuinely an English common-law jurisdiction on its civil and commercial side, but the wills process itself is a notarial one tied to local Abu Dhabi procedure.

It is open to non-Muslims aged 21 and over who own assets in the UAE. The will must be bilingual in Arabic and English and certified by a legal translator licensed by the UAE Ministry of Justice. It can cover disposition of the estate, guardianship of minor children, or both, and it can include a clause selecting UAE law and stating that sharia shall not apply.

The cost is much lower than the DIFC. Notarising a non-Muslim will costs AED 950 to the ADJD plus USD 155 to the ADGM Courts, paid through the eCourts platform. That lower entry price suits many Abu Dhabi residents.

The catch is at the other end. The ADGM does not issue grants of probate. A will can be notarised covering assets elsewhere in the UAE, or even outside it, but any grant of probate is made where the assets are, and UAE probate is then handled by the ADJD's Wills and Probate Office. So while "the ADGM applies English common law" is true, it does not mean English probate rules govern your assets, or that a UK court treats an ADGM will as an English grant. It is best read as a lower-cost, bilingual UAE notarised will within a common-law environment.

Your UK assets and UK inheritance tax

For many British expats, the UK side is the one that actually decides the plan. A UAE will can be effective for UAE administration, but it does not touch UK probate or UK inheritance tax.

On validity, English law is accommodating. Under the Wills Act 1963, a will is treated as properly executed if it followed the law of the place where it was signed, or the law of your domicile, habitual residence or nationality. So a will signed in Dubai can be formally valid for English purposes. That is not the same as a UAE grant of probate settling English assets. If a grant is needed in England and Wales, the assets there usually still pass through the English probate machinery, and the probate registry expects to see any foreign will that deals with overseas assets.

On tax, the bigger change is the move to long-term residence from 6 April 2025. If you are a long-term UK resident, broadly resident for at least 10 of the previous 20 years, your worldwide assets can be in scope for UK inheritance tax, and that exposure can continue for between three and ten years after you leave. The familiar numbers still apply: a £325,000 threshold, a £175,000 residence nil-rate band, 40 per cent above that, and spouse and charity exemptions. For a British expat whose wealth is mostly UK property and investments, this often matters more than the choice between the DIFC and the ADGM.

One myth to drop here: the UK and the UAE do have a double tax treaty, but it covers income and capital gains, not inheritance tax. Do not assume it solves an estate tax problem.

Which route fits which family

The useful question is not which is best, but what each is built to do.

A Dubai-based couple with young children, a UAE apartment, local bank accounts and a house in England usually has two risks at once: UAE administration and UK succession and tax. A DIFC Full Will can handle the UAE assets and the children's guardianship, while an English will deals with the UK house and the inheritance tax planning. Two wills, each doing one job, often beats forcing everything into one document.

An Abu Dhabi professional with no children, one local bank account, one property and only a small UK ISA may find the ADGM the more proportionate choice on cost. An English will can still help, but with less urgency.

A long-term expat whose wealth is largely in UK property and portfolios should treat UK inheritance tax as the main event. Mapping residence history, spouse exemptions and nil-rate bands matters more than the DIFC-versus-ADGM decision.

Four statements get repeated socially and none is safe to plan on: that a UK will automatically works in the UAE, that a DIFC will automatically settles the UK, that sharia always applies to non-Muslims, and that inheritance tax disappears once you move to Dubai. Each holds just enough truth to be passed around, and not enough to build an estate plan on.

The practical takeaway

Three steps cover most cases. Work out where your assets actually are and which court or probate office will deal with them. Decide whether your main risk is UAE administration, UK tax, or both. And if you use more than one will, have them reviewed together so the revocation wording, executors and asset scope line up rather than cancelling each other out.

Sources

• UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2022 on Civil Personal Status, Article 11 (uaelegislation.gov.ae)
• DIFC Courts Wills Service, Full Will (difccourts.ae)
• DIFC Courts fee schedule, wills registration fees (difccourts.ae)
• DIFC Courts Wills FAQ (difccourts.ae)
• ADGM Courts Notary Public, non-Muslim wills (adgm.com)
• Wills Act 1963, section 1 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Inheritance Tax if you're a long-term UK resident (gov.uk)
• 2016 UK-UAE Double Taxation Convention (gov.uk)

This is general information, not legal or tax advice, and UAE law for non-Muslims is still relatively new in places. Your own position depends on your assets, your family and your UK residence history. Expat Legacy can prepare your UK will from anywhere in the world and coordinate it with your UAE arrangements, so each document does its job without undermining the other.