In a recent article in Euromoney looking at the growing focus on succession planning in the Middle East, Kyra Motley provides expert commentary in light of the new regulatory regime introduced 12 months ago - see Kyra's previous article on the topic for more information. 

Partner, Kyra Motley says: “When I first started advising families in the Gulf, no one spoke about succession planning. Meeting a new client would often include starting at the beginning with a question on what a trust is”. "That has changed enormously". 

"There's inheritance disputes going on in every single different jurisdiction in the Gulf, " Motley explains. "Sometimes these people are in court with each other for 20, 30 or 40 years. Sometimes, the person who is ruled to inherit never even sees the assets because it just becomes tied up in litigation for so long". 

"This new law is quite ground-breaking," says Motley. "Elsewhere, family charters are morally binding, so having the option to make it legally binding is very interesting". She says that in the year since it was introduced, there has been interest from families in Saudi Arabia who already have non-binding family charters but are considering making them legal documents. 

"Some of the new rules, such as those around tax efficiency of family offices, are quite complicated, so it can be more difficult to engage families on them". 

The full article can be found in Euromoney (paywall) here.