Private client lawyers
Your client's structure is drafted. You need the foundation, holding company or SPV incorporated exactly as advised, a registered office and a service provider who will keep the registers and filings right for years.
For professional advisers
We implement the structure. You keep the client.
When you introduce a client to a UAE provider, your reputation goes with them. We form and administer DIFC and ADGM companies, foundations, SPVs and family office entities for the clients of lawyers, tax advisers, bankers and wealth managers, on terms agreed with you first, and without touching the advice you gave.
Who usually sends us a client, and why
The advice is normally settled by the time a client reaches us. What is missing is someone in the UAE to turn it into entities that exist, stay in good standing and still match the advice five years on.
Tax advisers and accountants
You have settled the tax position. You need the entity to have the substance, the audited accounts and the documented decision-making that position depends on, so it still holds when the Federal Tax Authority asks.
Wealth managers and private bankers
Your client needs a UAE holding vehicle, foundation or family office entity before the account can be opened. You need it formed properly, with ownership and control documented the way your onboarding team will ask for them.
M&A and corporate finance advisers
A deal needs a clean UAE holding company or SPV, sometimes quickly, with a share register and board records that will survive a buyer's due diligence.
Family office professionals
The family has decided on the UAE. You need the foundation, the office company and the holding vehicles set up in the right order, and administered by someone who reports to you.
How an introduction works
The order matters. Agreeing the boundary before anyone speaks to the client is what keeps the relationship where it belongs.
You brief us
Send the structure chart or the objective, what has already been advised, and anything the client has been told. We read the advice before we speak to the client, so nobody hears a different story from us.
We agree the boundary in writing
A short scope note setting out what we will implement, what stays with you, who the client's point of contact is for each, and when you want to be copied. If we see a problem with the structure, we raise it with you first.
We carry out our own client due diligence
Our anti-money laundering obligations mean we stay responsible for verifying the client and the source of funds, even where we can use documents you already hold. We ask once for what we need and tell you what it is, so your client is not chased twice for the same passport.
We implement
Incorporation, constitutional documents, registers, registered office, service provider appointment, corporate tax registration and introductions to banks. You get status updates at the points you choose.
We administer, you advise
Annual filings, renewals, beneficial ownership changes, board records and the accounting cycle continue with us. Advice on the structure, the tax position and the investments stays where it started.
What we will not do
- Give legal advice, or regulated investment or financial advice. We are a corporate service provider, and we will not stray into your role or anyone else's.
- Redesign a structure you have advised on without raising it with you first, unless a legal or compliance obligation leaves us no choice.
- Offer your client services outside the agreed scope, or suggest they move advice elsewhere.
- Tell a client something is simple, quick or guaranteed. Bank onboarding in particular is the bank's decision, and we say so from the first conversation.
What we take off your desk
The part that protects your name
The risk in an introduction is rarely the incorporation. It is what happens in year three: a beneficial ownership change nobody filed, a holding company with no documented decision-making when the tax position is questioned, a bank review that finds registers out of date. Those failures land on the adviser who recommended the provider.
So most of what we do is the unglamorous administration that keeps a structure matching its advice. We keep the registers and board records, track the filing calendar in both centres, and treat substance for Qualifying Free Zone Person status as something to evidence each year rather than assume. Our DIFC and ADGM compliance calendars show what that involves.
You deal with named people. Our directors are qualified accountants with backgrounds in corporate structuring, banking and family governance; you can read about them on our about page. Atlas is part of the GTAG and Assetica group, and where a client has no tax adviser of their own we can introduce GTAG. Where they already have one, that is you, and it stays that way.
Tools you can send a client before the first call
Free, no sign-up, and written so a client arrives understanding the question rather than attached to a vehicle.
Structure Decision Tree
Three questions to the smallest structure that does the job, and what would justify adding more.
OpenStructure Selector
Nine objectives mapped to the DIFC or ADGM structure that answers each.
OpenThe minimum viable structure
Why most UAE structures have more entities than jobs, and how to test each one.
OpenQuestions advisers ask us
Will you contact my client directly?
Only in the way we agree with you at the start. Some advisers want to stay on every email; others prefer us to deal with the client directly and report back at set points. Either works. What we will not do is open a separate line of advice with your client.
Do you give legal or tax advice?
No. Atlas is a corporate service provider, not a law firm, an accountancy firm or a firm authorised to give regulated financial advice. We implement and administer structures. Where a client needs tax advice and has no adviser, we can introduce GTAG, which is part of the same group as Atlas, and we say so openly.
Can you implement a structure we have already designed?
Yes, and that is most of this work. We will read your advice, confirm the structure can be implemented as drawn in DIFC or ADGM under the current rules, and raise any practical issue with you before anything is filed, for example a vehicle the relevant land department will not register as a property owner, or a service provider requirement that has changed.
Who carries out client due diligence?
We do. Our anti-money laundering obligations keep us responsible for verifying the client and the source of funds, even where we can use documents another firm has already collected. We ask once for what we need, tell you what it is, and say which documents from your own pack we can use.
Do you work in both DIFC and ADGM?
Yes. That matters for advisers because the choice between the two centres should follow the client's assets, documents, banking and advisers, not the provider's licence. If ADGM is the better fit for your client, we will say so.
Have a client who needs a UAE structure?
Tell us what has been advised and how you want to work. We will come back with a short scope note before anyone contacts your client.