Expatriate parents need to appoint guardians for their children while drafting wills in order to avoid legal hassles should anything happen to them [parents], a leading expert said.
In case of tragedy
Recently, an Indian family driving from Riyadh to Madinah in Saudi Arabia met with an accident in which the car overturned, killing the husband, wife and their eldest son on the spot, while two younger children survived.
Mohammad D. Marria, Senior Estate Planner of the Dubai-based estate planning firm Just Wills, said the children of a European expatriate, a single parent who died nine months ago, had to be taken into custody for three months till relatives from the home country arrived and legally established their kinship with the children.
While the prospect of children having to face a world without their parents or relatives in a foreign country cannot be ruled out, it is prudent for parents to legally appoint guardians - both permanent and interim - to take care of their wards in the case of any such eventuality, Marria said.
"All it takes is to include a clause to this effect while drafting one's will," he said. Interim guardians should be trusted relatives or friends who are locally available to look after the children till the permanent guardians, usually close relatives from back home, arrive, he added.
Need for a will
An expat can ensure that his wishes are executed only with a registered will in accordance with Article 17 of the UAE Law of Civil transactions, promulgated by Federal Law No 5/1985. The appointment of a guardian is made in the same will
