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ADGM Foundations

An ADGM foundation is a legal entity of its own: it holds assets for a purpose or for the beneficiaries you name, it has no shareholders, and neither the founder’s nor the beneficiaries’ names appear on the public register.

ADGM introduced the foundation with its Foundations Regulations 2017. It combines features of a company and a trust: the foundation owns its assets itself, is run by a council and follows the charter and by-laws you set. That makes it a natural vehicle for family wealth and succession planning, and for holding companies, real estate or investment portfolios.

Unless a foundation qualifies as exempt, it has to be registered and administered through an ADGM-licensed company service provider. That is our role: from the preparation of the documents to the registration and the annual filings.

What an ADGM foundation offers

A low entry threshold

A foundation can be set up with initial assets of USD 100. Further assets can be added as the structure grows.

Privacy

The names of the founder and the beneficiaries do not appear on the public register. Information on beneficial ownership is kept for the authorities, not published.

Protection against forced heirship claims

Transfers into an ADGM foundation cannot be set aside on the basis of foreign forced heirship rules, and foreign judgments to that effect are not enforced in ADGM (section 32 of the Foundations Regulations).

Creditor protection – with limits

Assets in a foundation are generally beyond the reach of the founder’s creditors. This does not apply where a transfer was made while the founder was insolvent or intended to defraud creditors (section 33). Structures hold up when they are set up early and properly documented, not in a crisis.

Governance you define

A council of at least two councillors runs the foundation. A guardian can supervise the council and becomes mandatory once the founder has died. The charter and by-laws set out the purpose, the beneficiaries and the succession.

Tax treatment

A family foundation can apply to the UAE Federal Tax Authority to be treated as tax transparent, so that its income is taxed at the level of its beneficiaries. Whether that suits you depends on your tax position in your home country, which is why we work together with your tax adviser.