Most family business owners know they should plan who takes over. Far fewer have done it. In our experience the obstacle is rarely legal or financial; it’s that the conversation feels hard to start.
It gets easier with a structure. Here is the one we use.
Start with what you want, not with structures
Before anyone mentions foundations or share classes, write down three things: when you want to step back, who you hope will run the business, and how you want to treat the children who won’t be working in it. Fairness rarely means equal shares, but it does mean everyone understands the reasons.
Get everyone in the room
We meet the whole family, often at the business or at home. The children who won’t join the business need to hear the plan first-hand, not after the funeral.
- The owners: what they need to live on, and when.
- The successor: what they’re taking on, and what they’re giving up.
- The rest of the family: how they’ll be looked after instead.
A plan that one person drafts in private is a plan the family will argue about later.
What the law now offers families
Since 2023, the federal Family Business Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 37 of 2022) has let families register a family business and adopt a family charter: who may own shares, how they are passed on and how disagreements are settled. The UAE has no inheritance tax, but without a plan the law of succession decides who inherits the shares, and bank accounts and company decisions can be frozen while the estate is settled.
For non-Muslim families, a will registered in the DIFC or in Abu Dhabi can direct UAE assets as the owner wishes. Muslim families can still plan within Sharia, for example with lifetime transfers and a holding foundation. The right answer depends on your family, your faith and where the assets are.
Put it in writing
A good succession plan usually means a family charter, a shareholders’ agreement, new wills, powers of attorney and sometimes a DIFC or ADGM foundation to hold the shares. We do it as one piece of work, quoted at the start. If you made a plan more than five years ago, book a review: for existing clients the first meeting is free.
