A New Way to Protect Your Family in the UAE: What Blanket's 15-Minute Will Service Means for Us
If you're a widow, a single mother, or simply the person holding your family together in the UAE, here's a piece of news worth your attention this week.. A new platform called Blanket has just launched in the UAE, and it lets residents create a fully registered will in around 15 minutes — without ever stepping into a law firm.
For many of us, that matters more than it might first sound.
Why a will is not optional here
Without a registered will in the UAE, families can face frozen bank accounts, delayed access to assets, court-led guardianship decisions, and a probate process that has, in some cases, taken up to 18 months. For a single mother, the guardianship question alone is reason enough to act — it determines who has legal authority over your children if something happens to you. For a widow rebuilding her life, it's often the one piece of admin she never got to, and the one that protects everyone she loves most.
Who built it
Blanket was founded by Anton Pirinen, a lawyer who was also part of the founding team at Wio Bank. He built the platform after seeing how often expat life — assets in one country, family in another, finances split across borders — turns simple estate planning into something complicated and expensive. Blanket is backed by investors and advisors with Wio and Revolut backgrounds, and it currently supports UAE wills, with UK and India wills available as add-ons (more countries are planned).
How it actually works
Sign up with your email and complete an online intake — about 15 minutes, no in-person meetings required.
You're assigned a dedicated expert who manages your case from start to finish.
A draft will is built from lawyer-designed templates and reviewed by a qualified human expert.
It's translated into Arabic by a Ministry of Justice-licensed translator.
It's submitted through the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department's (ADJD) notarial process. Once registered, ADJD holds the official will as the government repository, while your personal copy and supporting documents are stored securely in Blanket's Vault.
Blanket also offers powers of attorney, so you can appoint someone you trust to handle banking, government paperwork, or healthcare decisions on your behalf if you're travelling or unable to act yourself.
What it costs
UAE will (individual): AED 799, plus the ADJD government registration fee of AED 950
UAE mirror will (couples): AED 1,199, plus an ADJD fee of AED 1,900
UK or India will add-on: AED 499 (individual) or AED 799 (couple)
Power of attorney: AED 499, plus separate notary fees
Direct vs indirect: your two routes to a UAE will
Blanket is one way in, but it's worth knowing it's not the only door. Broadly, you have a direct route (going straight to a government registry yourself) and an indirect route (using a platform like Blanket to manage it for you). Here's how they actually compare.
Direct, option 1 — DIFC Wills Service Centre (Dubai, English, common law)
This is the route most familiar to expats from the UK, Australia, India, and other common-law countries. A Full Will, covering all your assets and guardianship wishes, costs AED 10,000 for an individual or AED 15,000 for a couple's mirror wills — these fees are VAT-exempt. If your situation is simpler (just a property, a bank account, or appointing a guardian for your children), a specialised will costs AED 5,000–7,500 individually. Most people also engage a registered DIFC draftsman to prepare the will, adding roughly AED 3,000–6,000. Allow 2–4 weeks from your first consultation to a registered will — the signing appointment itself takes only 20–30 minutes and can be done in person or remotely by video call with two witnesses. Contact: WillsService@difccourts.ae or +971 4 404 8888.
Direct, option 2 — Dubai Courts Notary Public (bilingual/Arabic, civil law, covers all 7 emirates)
"Dubai Courts Notary Public" is the notarisation department inside Dubai Courts itself — the Government of Dubai's judicial authority, established under Dubai Law No. 4 of 2013. Its role is to authenticate legal documents: verify your identity and legal capacity, check the document meets legal requirements, then certify it as binding before courts, government departments, and banks. Under Dubai Law No. 15 of 2017, this remit covers registering wills for non-Muslims. The government registration fee is around AED 2,167 for an individual will or AED 4,334 for mirror wills. No witnesses are required — the notary's own certification is what makes the will legally binding.
You don't have to queue at an actual Dubai Courts counter to use this. Dubai Courts licenses private companies — branded centres such as "Al Adheed" (run independently by more than one operator, with locations including Al Qusais and Al Barsha) and others such as EGSH — to process this exact same notary registration on the courts' behalf. You still pay the AED 2,167/4,334 government fee; the centre adds its own service charge on top for the convenience of a walk-in appointment with no queue (Dubai Courts standardised these private notary charges from 2 January 2026, at AED 100 per party registered, AED 100 per signature, and AED 1,000 if the notary travels to you). So if you've come across a centre called something like "Al Adheed," that's this — a licensed private gateway into the same Dubai Courts notary process, not a separate or cheaper legal route.
If your will is drafted in English, it must be translated into Arabic before Dubai Courts — or any licensed centre acting on its behalf — will register it, because the notarisation process itself runs in Arabic. What gets translated is the will document itself, every page, word for word, and it has to be done by a UAE Ministry of Justice-licensed legal translator, not a general translation service, for Dubai Courts to accept it. Standard legal-document translation runs roughly AED 100–150 per page (up to AED 150–200 per page for more complex wording), so a typical three-to-six-page will comes to about AED 300–900 for the translation alone. On top of that, expect a separate certification fee (commonly AED 100–300) for the translator or notary to formally attest that the translation matches the original — together, this is what brings the realistic all-in cost to the AED 500–1,500 range cited above, scaling with your will's length and complexity.
Indirect — a platform like Blanket
As above: roughly AED 1,749 all-in for an individual will (AED 799 service fee + AED 950 ADJD government fee), or AED 3,099 for mirror wills. About 15 minutes of your time for the intake, with registration completed after their review.
RouteCost (individual)TimeLanguageBlanket (via ADJD)~AED 1,749 all-in~15 min input; days to registerEnglish, with Arabic translationDubai Courts Notary Public (direct)~AED 2,167 + translationSame day–2 business days once draftedArabic (bilingual accepted)DIFC Wills Service, simpler will (direct)From AED 5,000 + drafting2–4 weeksEnglishDIFC Wills Service, Full Will (direct)From AED 10,000 + drafting2–4 weeksEnglish
There's no single "best" answer here — it depends what you're optimising for. Want the cheapest, fastest, government-registered option and you're fine with an Arabic-language will? Dubai Courts Notary Public direct is hard to beat. Want everything managed for you without leaving your sofa? A platform like Blanket does that for a modest premium. Want an English will built on common-law principles, especially useful if you have ties to the UK or another common-law country? DIFC is the established route, at a higher price point.
Whichever you choose, the underlying point holds: a registered will is well within reach, often for the cost of a nice dinner out, and rarely takes more than a few weeks.
Why we're sharing this
HerSphere isn't affiliated with Blanket — we simply think this is the kind of practical, UAE-specific information our community needs. As with any legal step, it's worth thinking through your own circumstances — family abroad, assets in more than one country, specific wishes for your children — before you start, and seeking independent legal advice if your situation is complex.
Estate planning is one of those tasks that's easy to put off, especially when you're already carrying a lot. If a 15-minute online process removes even one barrier between you and protecting your children and your assets, it's worth fifteen minutes of your evening.
If you've already made a will in the UAE — through Blanket or otherwise — we'd love to hear how the process went for you. And if you haven't yet, consider this your gentle nudge.
