Life insurance from your home country while living in the UAE

Many UAE residents hold life cover from their home country or from an insurer based offshore. UAE law restricts insurance with foreign insurers, and the restriction is written in terms of funds, property and liabilities.

What does UAE law say about foreign insurers?

Article 82 of the Central Bank law, in force from 16 September 2025, says no person may take out an insurance policy with a foreign insurance company outside the UAE or in a financial free zone “to cover any funds or property within the State or liabilities arising therein”. No company in the UAE may insure its staff in the UAE with insurers outside the UAE.¹

There are exceptions: where the cover is not available in the UAE, where UAE insurers refuse or cannot provide it, or for other reasons the Central Bank decides.¹

Ask a UAE lawyer whether it applies to you before you buy a new policy from an insurer outside the UAE while resident here.

Are some foreign life insurers registered in the UAE?

Yes. The Central Bank’s directory lists foreign insurers with UAE branches in the class “Insurance of Persons and Fund Accumulation Operations”. Among them are American Life Insurance Company (MetLife), Zurich International Life Limited and Friends Provident International Limited. Life Insurance Corporation (International) B.S.C.(c), from Bahrain, is listed as a GCC company branch in the same class.²

Zurich International Life is authorised in the Isle of Man and registered in the UAE as number 63. Its key features document says that if an Isle of Man life company cannot meet its liabilities, the Isle of Man compensation regulations meet up to 90% of the liability to protected policy owners.³

Check whether your insurer’s UAE branch or its head office issued your policy. The policy schedule names the issuer.

What changes if your insurer is not licensed in the UAE?

Mainly where you complain. Sanadak, the ombudsman unit, takes complaints only against insurers licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE.⁴ For a home-country insurer, ask which complaints body covers your policy.

Claims can take more paperwork. A UAE death certificate may need attestation by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the relevant embassy, depending on where it will be used.⁵

Put the questions in the checklist below to your insurer, and keep its answers with the policy.

Will your policy still cover you if you move?

That is in each policy’s terms. Of the policies sold in the UAE, MetLife’s Live Life sets a lower maximum for non-residents, USD 5 million against USD 50 million for residents.⁶ Zurich’s term plan continues if you move permanently to another country, subject to its rules at the time.³

If you hold a policy from home and now live in the UAE, ask the insurer whether your move changes anything.

Can you manage a foreign policy from the UAE?

Some insurers make it easier than others. Mashreq’s surrender process lists contact details for the providers whose plans it sells, including Utmost International and LIC International.⁷

Name your beneficiaries by full name and tell them which insurer to contact. A payout on death does not form part of the estate under UAE law.⁸