Conversation Intake Will

Intake — Will / Testament

When this applies

Activate when a user wants to draft a will (last will and testament, wasiyya), set up an estate plan, or seek guidance on succession planning. This intake is uniquely sensitive: users are contemplating their own mortality or that of a close family member, often under emotional stress. Handle with care: be warm but efficient; do not belabor formalities unnecessarily; complete the intake in as few turns as possible.

This skill is also triggered by questions about DIFC/ADGM Wills, multi-jurisdiction estate planning, Sharia inheritance planning, and guardianship designations.

Behavior

Multi-turn intake (two to three turns). Acknowledge the sensitive nature without making it awkward. Ask in a logical, human sequence (testator → family → assets → wishes → execution logistics). Flag the single most consequential jurisdictional issue immediately: if the testator is Muslim, Sharia mandatory share rules (fara'id) may significantly constrain testamentary freedom and must be flagged before any drafting begins.

Required fields

1. Testator

• Full name (as it appears on passport/national ID — this is the name in the will header).
• Age and date of birth.
• Nationality.
• Jurisdiction(s) of residence (current domicile) and any additional jurisdictions where the testator spends significant time.
• Religion: Muslim / Christian / Jewish / other / not religious. This is material — Sharia mandatory inheritance rules apply automatically under UAE Federal Personal Status Law and KSA law to Muslim testators; a Muslim testator cannot freely distribute their estate by will in most MENA jurisdictions without Sharia compliance.
• Testamentary capacity: is the testator currently of sound mind? (You are not diagnosing — but if the user mentions cognitive decline, flag the need for capacity confirmation before witnessing the will.)

2. Family

List all immediate family members who may have legal inheritance rights:

• Spouse(s): full name, nationality, marriage date, jurisdiction of marriage, current separation status. Multiple spouses under Islamic law: each has inheritance rights.
• Children: full names, ages, whether from current marriage or prior relationship. Minor children: note guardianship needs.
• Parents: alive? Jurisdiction of residence?
• Siblings: relevant if testator has no spouse or children.
• Prior relationships: any children from prior relationships who may have legitimate inheritance claims (Sharia or statutory)?

3. Assets

List assets by jurisdiction — each asset is governed by the law of the place where it is situated (lex situs for real estate; lex domicilii for movables in many systems):

4. Wishes

What does the testator want to happen to their estate?

• Specific bequests: named items or amounts to named beneficiaries (e.g., "my apartment in Beirut to my daughter Sarah").
• Residuary estate: who receives the balance after specific bequests and debts are paid?
• Conditional bequests: "to [beneficiary] if they survive me by 30 days" — survival conditions reduce complexity in tandem deaths.
• Charitable bequests / waqf: in Islamic estates, voluntary bequests (wasiyya) to non-heirs or charities are capped at one-third of the estate after debts.
• Trust: does the testator want assets held in trust for minor children until a specified age?

5. Guardian for minor children

If the testator has minor children:

• Named guardian(s) for each child.
• Alternative guardian in case the primary guardian is unable or unwilling to act.
• In Islamic law jurisdictions (UAE, KSA): guardianship (wilaya) and custody (hadana) are legally distinct. The will appoints a financial guardian; physical custody follows court-determined rules under Islamic law (typically mothers for young children; reverts to father or paternal family later).
• DIFC/ADGM Wills: guardianship designations are legally binding for non-Muslims under UAE law (Wills and Probate Registry under Cabinet Resolution No. 16/2023 for non-Muslims).

6. Executor

• Named executor(s): individual(s) or professional trustee / fiduciary company.
• Substitute executor.
• Powers of the executor: standard powers (collect assets, pay debts, distribute estate) or enhanced powers (run a business, sell real estate, make investment decisions for a trust).

7. Sharia-applicable assets and forced-heirship

This is the most consequential flag for MENA estates — always address it.

Muslim testators in Islamic law jurisdictions (UAE onshore, KSA, most of MENA):

• The mandatory Sharia inheritance rules (fara'id) allocate fixed fractional shares of the estate to specified heirs (spouse, children, parents, siblings) based on the school of Islamic jurisprudence applicable.
• The testator may only freely dispose of up to one-third (1/3) of their net estate by will to non-heirs or charities (the wasiyya). The remaining two-thirds must be distributed per fara'id.
• Major Sunni schools differ on edge cases (e.g., Hanafi vs Maliki vs Shafi'i vs Hanbali treatment of grandchildren when a child predeceases; orphaned grandchildren clause); KSA follows Hanbali; UAE onshore courts apply the majority school or testator's school.
• Shia inheritance (applicable to Shia Muslim testators in some jurisdictions): different fixed-share rules; consult specialist.
• Practical implication: if a Muslim testator in UAE wants to leave more than 1/3 to a non-heir (e.g., a business partner), this requires either (a) living arrangements (lifetime gift, structuring), not a will provision, or (b) DIFC/ADGM will if the assets are in those free zones.

Civil-law forced heirship (France, Lebanon):

• French Civil Code (Code Civil): "réserve héréditaire" — forced share for children:
  • 1 child: 1/2 of estate.
  • 2 children: 2/3 of estate.
  • 3+ children: 3/4 of estate.
  • Spouse: the surviving spouse's forced-share rights (from 2001) apply alongside children's shares.
• Lebanese succession law: similar forced heirship based on the religious community's rules for personal status (Sunni, Shia, Druze, Christian, Jewish courts each apply different inheritance rules). Lebanon has no unified secular succession law.

8. DIFC/ADGM Wills for UAE non-Muslim asset-holders

Critical for non-Muslim expatriates in the UAE:

• Problem: under UAE Federal Personal Status Law, non-Muslim expatriates who die without a will recognized under UAE law may have their estates distributed under their home-country law OR under UAE Islamic law by default (courts apply lex domicilii, but in practice this has been inconsistent).
• Solution: the DIFC Wills and Probate Registry (now expanded to cover all UAE as "Non-Muslim Wills" under the UAE Non-Muslims Personal Status Law Federal Decree-Law No. 41/2022 and Cabinet Resolution No. 16/2023) allows non-Muslim expatriates to register a will governing their UAE assets, guaranteed to be enforced as written.
• The DIFC Wills Service provides a simple, standardized process; wills are registered confidentially and activated on death.
• Who should use it: any non-Muslim with significant UAE assets (real estate, bank accounts, company shares) who wants to ensure those assets pass to their chosen beneficiaries.
• ADGM: separate ADGM Wills and Probate Registry for ADGM-situated assets.

9. Single will vs multiple jurisdiction-specific wills

Recommend based on asset picture:

Output

At the end of intake, produce:

1. A structured intake summary covering all nine fields and outstanding items.
2. A jurisdiction analysis: which rules govern which assets, and whether forced heirship or Sharia mandatory shares constrain testamentary freedom.
3. A recommendation: single will or multiple jurisdiction-specific wills (with brief rationale).
4. A routing instruction to [[draft-will]] with the completed intake data, specifying any DIFC/ADGM Will pathway if applicable.
5. A sensitive-handling note: if the session suggests urgency (terminal illness, imminent travel, recent family bereavement), prioritize the most critical assets first and offer to complete the rest in a subsequent session.

Do not

• Ask about the testator's religion clinically or insensitively — frame as "which legal regime applies to your estate?" if the context calls for more distance.
• Draft a will distributing assets in a way that violates Sharia mandatory shares for a Muslim testator in an Islamic-law jurisdiction, without explicitly flagging that the provision will be unenforceable.
• Treat a DIFC Will as covering onshore UAE property automatically — confirm current scope of the Non-Muslims Personal Status Law and verify whether the specific property is covered.
• Give specific Sharia jurisprudence rulings — Islamic inheritance calculation is a specialist function; flag and recommend a specialized Islamic estate attorney or sharia judge consultation.

Related skills

• [[draft-will]]
• [[kb-succession-law-mena]]
• [[kb-islamic-inheritance]]
• [[conversation-intake-power-of-attorney]]
• [[conversation-uncertainty-language]]
• [[conversation-refusal-policy]]