On 23 September 2026 the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre Authority formally established its Foundations Regulations. The UAE now has four foundation regimes they are ADGM, DIFC, RAK ICC and now DMCC and anyone holding family assets here has one more structure to consider.

A new regime is only useful if you understand what it does. This Article sets out what a DMCC Foundation is, how much control a founder can keep, and what it will not do.

First, what a foundation is

A foundation is a legal person that owns assets in its own name. There are no shares and no shareholders. Nor is it a trust, though it does a similar job: a trust is a relationship, while a foundation is an entity, rather like a company, which holds and applies property for people instead of trading for profit.

That difference matters. Families from civil law backgrounds often find trusts unfamiliar and hard to explain to their own banks and registries at home, whereas a foundation looks like something they recognise. Once assets are transferred in, the Foundation owns them, the founder does not, and nor do the beneficiaries, whose rights come from the Foundation’s constitution rather than from any share in a particular asset.

The structure in outline

A DMCC Foundation is managed by a Council of at least two members, and the founder may sit on it. A Guardian provides oversight, and that role becomes mandatory once there is no surviving founder sensibly, since it is after the founder’s death that a structure is most likely to drift.

The constitution consists of the Charter and, where adopted, By-laws. These are not forms to fill in: they should deal with how distributions are decided, how Council members are appointed and removed, which powers are reserved and to whom, and what happens on the founder’s death. A thin Charter stores up arguments for the next generation.

A registered office in DMCC is required, and a Registered Agent may be appointed but is not generally mandatory. The minimum initial asset requirement is USD 100. The DIFC Courts are designated as the relevant court unless DMCCA specifies otherwise, an English 2language common law court whose judgments travel well internationally.

How much control can a founder keep?

This is usually the first question we are asked, and the answer is generous. Specified powers may be reserved to the founder or another named person, including over investment decisions, appointments and beneficiaries. A founder can move assets out of personal ownership and still have a real say in what happens to them.

One caution. There is a tension between reserving powers and achieving separation, and it is possible to reserve so much that a court elsewhere concludes the founder never truly parted with anything. Reserved powers should be designed with that risk in mind rather than maximised.

Privacy, yes. Anonymity, no.

The names and addresses of Council members, the Guardian, specified beneficiaries and the beneficial owners of corporate founders are confidential. That is real privacy and worth having. It is not secrecy: disclosure remains possible where the Regulations permit, including to regulators and law enforcement, and nothing displaces the UAE’s beneficial ownership and anti-money laundering obligations.

Succession: the firewall provisions

For international families these matter most. In broad terms, a DMCC Foundation, or a transfer of assets into it, is not to be undermined merely because a foreign legal system does not recognise foundations, or because its inheritance or forced heirship rules would have produced a different result. The Regulations also limit recognition of foreign judgments that conflict with these protections.

If your family has members and assets in several countries, each with different inheritance laws, the DMCC Foundation’s protection can be the difference between a plan that works and one that ends up in court.

But the protection only works where DMCC law applies. It cannot stop a court in another country from deciding what happens to property located in that country. So for assets held abroad, such as a house in London, the foundation is only part of your planning. You would also need to deal with the local law where that property sits.

What it will not do ?

A foundation is not a way to put assets beyond the reach of people you already owe, and the Regulations say so. A creditor may challenge a transfer where the transferor was insolvent at the time, or transferred assets intending to defraud creditors, and the Court may set it aside. Against that, a three-year limitation period applies to specified claims relating to transfers into a Foundation.

The lesson is simple. Establish the structure while matters are calm. One put in place when a dispute or a divorce is already in view is the one most likely to be unpicked.

Tax is a separate exercise

Establishing a Foundation does not by itself determine its UAE Corporate Tax position. Under Article 17 of the Corporate Tax Law a Family Foundation may apply to the Federal Tax Authority to be treated as an Unincorporated Partnership — fiscally transparent, with income attributed to the founder and beneficiaries. The application is not automatic. All of the following must be met:

• 1. it is established for identified or identifiable natural persons, a public benefit entity, or both;
  
  
• 2. its principal activity is holding and managing assets or funds connected with savings or investment;
  
  
• 3. it carries on no activity that would have been a business had the founder, settlor or a beneficiary carried it on directly;
  
  
• 4. its main purpose is not the avoidance of Corporate Tax; and
  
  
• 5. where a beneficiary is a public benefit entity, that entity would have had no taxable income had it earned the income directly, or the income is distributed to it within six months of the period end.
  
  

The Foundation must register for Corporate Tax before applying, the application must be made before the end of the relevant tax period, and an annual confirmation is due within nine months of each period end. If a condition fails, transparent treatment is lost from the start of that period. The third condition catches people most often: a foundation holding passive investments can drift into something resembling trading without anyone noticing.

DMCC, DIFC, ADGM or RAK ICC?

There is no best regime, only the one that fits. The four differ on whether a registered agent is required, how much Council information is public, and which court supervises the structure. DMCC’s distinctive features are the low entry requirement, the breadth of reservable powers, the optional Registered Agent and the DIFC Courts designation and for a family whose trading companies are already in DMCC, keeping the holding structure in the same free zone is a genuine convenience. But the decision should turn on the family’s objectives, where its assets and beneficiaries are, its tax position and how much control the founder wants to keep.

How we can help

We advise families, founders and family offices on choosing between the UAE foundation regimes, on drafting Charters and By-laws that will still work in twenty years, and on the Corporate Tax position before anything is signed. If you are considering a foundation, or already have one that no longer fits, we would be glad to talk it through.