Most people don't think about estate planning until they absolutely have to.

But sometimes a legal change is enough to make you stop and ask, "Does my will still say what I want it to say?"

The UAE has officially lowered the legal age of majority from 21 to 18. At first glance, it sounds like a simple change. In reality, it could affect how existing wills, guardianship arrangements, and inheritances work.

If your will says a child inherits assets when they reach the "age of majority," that age now means 18, not 21.

That could mean:

✔️ Beneficiaries gaining control of assets sooner.

✔️ Guardianship arrangements ending earlier.

✔️ Estate plans working differently than originally intended.

The good news? Existing wills don't automatically become invalid. But this legal update is a good reminder that estate planning isn't something you write once and forget.

This is especially important if you:

• Own property in the UAE

• Have children

• Run a business

• Have assets in more than one country

• Created your will several years ago

Estate planning isn't only about passing on wealth. It's about making things easier for the people you care about and making sure your wishes are clear.

Sometimes a quick review today can prevent complicated legal issues later.

If you'd like to understand exactly how the UAE's new age of majority could affect your will or estate plan, Elnaggar Legal has published a detailed guide explaining the changes in simple language.

👉 Read the full article here:

If you take away one thing from this post: a will does not control who inherits your retirement account. This is an educational walkthrough of why that's true and what to actually check to make sure your accounts reflect your real intentions, not legal advice for a specific estate.

Step 1: Understand what a beneficiary designation actually is

A beneficiary designation is a contract between the account owner and the custodian (the bank, brokerage, or plan administrator holding the account), separate from anything written in a will. When the account owner dies, the custodian pays out according to that contract directly, without reference to probate or the will at all. This is called a "non-probate transfer," and it's why retirement accounts, along with things like life insurance policies and payable-on-death bank accounts, often move outside of the estate process entirely.

Step 2: Recognize why this catches people off guard

Most people assume their will is the master document controlling everything they own. It isn't, at least not for accounts with their own beneficiary designation. A will only controls probate assets, things titled solely in the deceased's name with no other transfer mechanism attached. Retirement accounts, by design, almost always have their own separate transfer mechanism, which is exactly why the beneficiary form, not the will, wins.

Step 3: Find out what's actually on file right now

The only way to know for certain who's named on a given retirement account is to ask the custodian directly or check the account's online portal, where beneficiary designations are usually listed. Don't assume based on memory of what you filled out originally, particularly for older accounts opened years or decades ago. Confirming the current, actual designation on file is the necessary first step before doing anything else.

Step 4: Update it directly with the custodian, not through your attorney's will drafting

Even after updating a will with a new estate attorney, the retirement account beneficiary form has to be updated separately, directly with each account's custodian. A comprehensive estate plan doesn't automatically synchronize with account-level beneficiary forms. This is a step that's easy to assume "the attorney handled" when in fact it requires a separate, specific action with each individual financial institution.

Step 5: Review beneficiary forms on every account, not just the big one

People sometimes update the beneficiary form on their primary IRA or 401(k) after a major life event but forget about smaller accounts, an old 401(k) from a previous employer, a small IRA opened years ago, or a workplace retirement account from a job long since left. Each one has its own separate beneficiary designation that needs its own separate update.

Step 6: Confirm what happens if no beneficiary is named at all

If a beneficiary designation is missing, outdated (naming someone who's since passed away), or was never filled out, the account typically defaults to the plan or custodian's own default beneficiary rules, which often means the estate itself, subjecting the account to probate and potentially less favorable distribution rules than a properly named individual beneficiary would have received. Confirming there's a valid, current beneficiary named on every account, rather than assuming the will picks up the slack, avoids this outcome entirely.

Step 7: Understand why a "per stirpes" designation matters

Many beneficiary forms offer an option to designate a beneficiary "per stirpes," meaning that if the named beneficiary has already passed away by the time the account owner dies, that beneficiary's share passes to their own descendants rather than being redistributed among the surviving named beneficiaries. Without this designation, a deceased beneficiary's intended share might default to the other named beneficiaries instead of that person's children, an outcome that often doesn't match what the account owner actually intended. Checking whether this option was elected, and whether it still matches your intentions, is worth doing during any beneficiary review.

Step 8: Don't assume a durable power of attorney covers this either

A power of attorney allows someone to manage your affairs while you're alive, but it has no effect after death, and it doesn't substitute for a properly completed beneficiary designation. Confusing the two, or assuming that whoever holds power of attorney will "sort it out" after death, is a separate and common misunderstanding worth clearing up explicitly if it's part of your own estate planning assumptions.

Where to check the underlying rules

The IRS has general educational material on how beneficiary designations work for retirement accounts, and Investor.gov, the SEC's investor education site, covers the broader concept of non-probate transfers if the terminology is unfamiliar. FINRA's BrokerCheck is worth using to verify the background of any financial professional helping you review your accounts.

Step 9: Check contingent beneficiaries, not just primary ones

Most beneficiary forms allow naming both a primary beneficiary and one or more contingent beneficiaries who inherit only if the primary beneficiary has already passed away. It's common for people to name a primary beneficiary carefully but leave the contingent beneficiary field blank or outdated, which becomes a real problem in the specific scenario it's meant to cover, when the primary beneficiary predeceases the account owner. Reviewing both fields together, not just the primary designation, closes this gap.

Step 10: Understand what happens with a jointly titled beneficiary designation

Occasionally a beneficiary form names a married couple jointly rather than as two separate individuals with defined percentages, which can create ambiguity about how the account should actually be split or administered if both were meant to receive a defined share. Naming beneficiaries individually, each with a clear percentage, generally produces a cleaner outcome than a joint or ambiguous designation, and it's worth reviewing exactly how a given form is worded rather than assuming the intent is obvious from the names listed.

Why an annual review, not a one-time fix, is the real solution

Fixing an outdated beneficiary form once addresses today's problem but doesn't prevent the same issue from recurring after the next major life event. Building a beneficiary designation review into an annual financial check-in, alongside things like reviewing insurance coverage or rebalancing investments, keeps this specific risk from quietly reappearing every few years without anyone noticing until it matters.

Step 10.5: Confirm the form was actually processed, not just submitted

Submitting an updated beneficiary form doesn't guarantee it was processed correctly. Requesting written confirmation from the custodian that the new designation is on file, and periodically re-checking the online portal or a statement, closes the loop on whether the update actually took effect rather than assuming a submitted form was automatically applied.

Step 11: Keep a master list of every account with its own beneficiary form

Between IRAs, old 401(k)s, life insurance policies, and payable-on-death bank accounts, most people have more beneficiary-designated accounts than they'd guess offhand. Keeping a single master list, updated whenever any one form changes, makes the periodic review described above dramatically faster than trying to remember or track down every account individually each time a life event prompts a check.

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