ADGM launches UAE’s first Foundations regime

ABU DHABI / Emirates Business

Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the International Financial Centre in Abu Dhabi, launched the first of its kind Foundations regime in support of more effective structures for wealth preservation and wealth management. The ADGM Foundations regime provides a strategic platform for financial planning and structuring, serving as an alternative to trusts and corporate vehicles.
For the first time in the UAE, the local, private and corporate community can now efficiently and locally deploy these structures for a variety of services, including family succession planning, tax planning, asset protection, wealth management and corporate structuring, without relying on foreign regimes and practices. The regime and offerings are operational with immediate effect.
Foundations, like trusts, are utilized for a variety of purposes including wealth management, planning and preservation and are a suitable vehicle for wealth management across generations. Unlike trusts, however, Foundations are incorporated as a legal entity with their own distinct attributes and legal personality.
In this respect, foundations are similar to companies but without shareholders. Private Banks have positively endorsed to the opportunity to use Foundations in ADGM as a core component of their structuring for clients without having to continue to rely on vehicles from outside the region.
ADGM’s Foundations regime supplements its existing suite of products and services available to families. To date, the ADGM platform has been widely used by local families for structuring business interests, holding companies and Special Purpose Vehicles for holding a wide range of assets, as well as setting up family offices. ADGM is also an attractive setting for an ever growing community of highly regarded professional advisory firms and extensive experts in family wealth management. ADGM will continue to evolve its offering to support local and international families and High-Net-Worth-Individuals to efficiently manage their business and investment interests for several generations to come. Global clients with interests in Abu Dhabi and the region can also utilise the ADGM Foundations regime and ADGM’s offering as an IFC to efficiently address their assets and wealth management needs.
“ADGM has been working closely with local and international stakeholders and market panel of experts to understand their needs and develop a Foundations regime that addresses the unique requirements of families and asset owners in Abu Dhabi, regionally and globally. The new foundations regime, together with the existing world-class legislative and regulatory framework, adds to ADGM’s extensive corporate and legal structure offerings. This is part of ADGM’s ongoing commitment to enhance its ecosystem and serve the needs of its stakeholders by introducing innovative and efficient business solutions,” said Dhaher Bin Dhaher Al Mheiri, Chief Executive Officer, Registration Authority of ADGM.
The newly enacted Foundations Regulations follow international best practice and ensure an appropriate balance between preserving client confidentiality and maintaining high standards of transparency under the ADGM’s internationally recognised legislative environment.
As an IFC, ADGM is well anchored by its internationally-aligned rules and regulations and supported by a robust community of leading international financial institutions and professional advisors. Local and foreign entities, who seek to establish their foundations and businesses at ADGM,
will also benefit from the ease-
of-doing-business environment and efficient set-up and registration process via the ADGM
Registration Authority.