Does your life insurance payout go into your estate, and who inherits it?

A life insurance payout on death sits outside the estate. Article 985 of the Civil Transactions Law, in force from 1 June 2026, says: “The amounts agreed to be paid upon the death of the insured shall not form part of the estate of the insured.”¹ Who receives it is set by the policy.

Who gets the money if the policy names your heirs?

Your heirs at the time of your death, in their statutory shares. The law says that where the beneficiaries are the heirs, the sum is divided among them “according to the statutory shares of inheritance”.¹ The same applies to a policy for your spouse, children or descendants as a group: the money goes to whoever holds that position when you die.¹

Insurers then need proof of who the heirs are. MetLife asks for an original succession certificate where beneficiaries are not named or are described as “legal heirs”.² Under the Civil Transactions Law, the competent court issues a certificate identifying the heirs and each one’s share on the request of an heir or an interested party.¹

Name each person in the policy if you want to set the split yourself. See naming beneficiaries.

Which inheritance rules apply to you?

That depends on your religion, nationality and will. There are three layers.

• The general rule. Succession is governed by the law of the country the deceased belonged to at death. A will is governed by the law the will chooses, or otherwise the law of the testator’s nationality. UAE law applies to a foreigner’s will over property in the UAE.¹
• Non-Muslims. The civil personal status law applies to non-Muslim UAE citizens and non-Muslim foreign residents, unless they adhere to the law of their home country, for marriage, divorce, inheritance, wills and parentage.³ The UAE government portal says non-Muslim residents can follow their home country’s laws or choose the personal status laws in force in the UAE.⁴
• Muslims. The personal status of Muslims, including inheritance, is a matter of public order under the Civil Transactions Law.¹

Because these rules interact with your nationality and family, take advice from a lawyer on which applies to you.

What does the civil personal status law say if there is no will?

For those it applies to, half of the estate goes to the husband or wife and the other half is shared equally among the children, with no difference between sons and daughters.³ With no children, the estate goes to the parents, or half to one surviving parent and half to the brothers and sisters, with further rules if there are no parents.³

The same law lets a testator leave a will covering all the property they own in the UAE to anyone they choose, within the controls in its executive regulations.³

A registered will is how you decide the split of your estate yourself. See wills.

Does a will decide who gets your life insurance?

The policy’s beneficiary designation is the starting point, because a death payout is outside the estate.¹ The DIFC Courts’ wills FAQ, asked whether life insurance forms part of the estate, answers only that a Full Will covers all movable and immovable property in the jurisdiction it names.⁵ The law does not say how a policy that names “my estate”, or names no one, is paid.

If your policy names no one, or names your estate, ask your insurer and a lawyer how the payout would be handled, and update the policy.