Someone has died and you have been handed a list of estate documents Dubai institutions want before they will do anything, in vocabulary nobody has explained. This is about what happens first: what a bank or authority actually asks for, what can be prepared straight away, what cannot, and where our work stops and a lawyer’s starts.
We draft corporate and estate documents in Arabic and English and arrange their notarisation before a Dubai Courts notary. We are a document services provider, not a notary and not a law firm.
What institutions actually ask for
A bank, a land registry or a company registrar dealing with a deceased person’s affairs is not asking for one document. It is asking for a sequence: proof of who the heirs are, proof that somebody has authority to act, and then the specific paperwork each institution needs to release what it holds. Each bank has its own document set, and we tell you which set yours needs rather than assuming one size fits every counter. This sits alongside the fuller order set out on our estate documents page.
Two things worth knowing before you begin
Heirs are frequently in different countries. Requiring everyone to attend everything is usually impossible, and it is also usually unnecessary. A power of attorney for estate administration lets one person deal with the file on behalf of the others, which is normally the single most useful document to get in place early.
The order matters. The steps below are not a menu to pick from. Each one tends to be a precondition for the next, and doing them out of sequence produces documents that institutions will not accept yet. There is no charge for a conversation before anything is prepared, and at this stage a conversation is usually worth more than a document.
The order estate documents are usually needed in
| Step | What it depends on |
|---|---|
| Establish who the heirs are | Nothing else can move until the entitled parties are identified in a form banks and registries will accept |
| Appoint someone to act | A power of attorney for estate administration, so one person can deal with the file instead of everyone attending |
| Gather and translate the foreign documents | A death certificate or an equivalent issued abroad usually needs translation, and sometimes further steps, before a UAE institution will look at it |
| Record the agreements between heirs | Where heirs agree on how something is to be dealt with, that agreement is recorded rather than assumed |
| Deal with the bank accounts | Each bank has its own document set, checked against the rest of the file |
| Transfer shares held by the deceased | The company’s own constitutional process runs alongside the estate process, and both have to be satisfied |
Documents issued in another country
A death certificate, a grant of probate or an equivalent issued outside the UAE does not automatically carry the standing here that it had where it was made.
What is usually required is a chain: the document is formalised in the country that issued it, then confirmed by that country’s foreign ministry or equivalent, then confirmed again by the UAE mission there, and then often by the UAE ministry once it arrives. The chain runs in order, and a step cannot generally be done out of sequence, so a document that skipped one has to go back. Translation happens at a specific point in that sequence rather than wherever is convenient, because a translation attached before a confirmation may not be covered by it.
Tell us the country and we will set out the chain that applies before you commit to anything.
What we can prepare, and what we cannot
We prepare the instruments an estate needs, and we make sure they will be accepted by the institutions that have to act on them. That covers powers of attorney for estate administration, consents and agreements between heirs, and the drafting side of releasing accounts or transferring shares.
What we do not do is advise on entitlement, on disputes between heirs, or on whether a distribution is correct. Those are legal questions, and they belong to a lawyer. If that is what a family needs, the useful thing is to be told so at the first conversation rather than to be sold a document that does not address it.
Where we stop and a lawyer starts
You are usually dealing with this at a difficult time, so it is worth being plain about the boundary rather than leaving it to be discovered later. A notary attests to documents; drafting the instruments an estate needs, and making sure they will be accepted by the institutions that have to act on them, is the work we do. Where a matter needs legal advice or representation instead of documents, we say so at the first conversation and do not pretend otherwise.
This same boundary applies if the estate also needs a will covering UAE assets drafted for a surviving family member, which is a related but separate document with its own published fee.
What to bring
Bring what you already have rather than waiting until the file feels complete. That usually means the death certificate or its foreign equivalent, identification for the heirs, and anything already translated so it can be checked before it is relied on. If a bank or registry has given you its own written requirement, bring that too, so we can check it against the rest of the file before an appointment is booked. It is the same process we follow for every instrument, whichever document a bank or registry is asking for.
Send us what you have, describe what the estate has to achieve, and we will tell you what is missing and what can be arranged before you commit to anything, through our contact page.
Questions people ask
What is the first estate document I actually need?
Establishing who the heirs are, in a form the banks and registries will accept. Nothing else in the file can move until that is settled.
Can one person handle this for the whole family?
Usually yes, through a power of attorney for estate administration. It lets one person deal with the file instead of requiring every heir to attend everything.
Does a foreign death certificate work as it is?
Not usually. It generally needs translation, and sometimes further confirmation from the issuing country and the UAE mission there, before a UAE institution will accept it.
Will you tell me how the estate should be divided?
No. That is a legal question about entitlement, and it belongs to a lawyer. We tell you so at the first conversation if that is what your file needs.
Is talking to you before I have any documents ready free?
Yes. There is no charge for a conversation before anything is prepared, and at that stage the conversation is usually worth more than a document.