Establishing and running the office that holds a family’s capital together — mandate, structure, governance and the reporting rhythm that follows.
A family office is a dedicated structure that manages a single family’s wealth — investments, ownership, succession and administration — under one mandate. In Ras Al Khaimah it is typically built on holding companies or a foundation established through vetted partner firms, with the operating businesses held beneath it.
Who owns what, through which vehicle, and what happens to it on death, divorce or dispute.
An investment policy, mandates to managers, and a single consolidated view of performance.
A family council, defined decision rights, and a process for disagreement that does not end in court.
Banking, filings, registers, reporting and the unglamorous continuity work that keeps a structure valid.
The two get conflated often enough that it is worth separating them plainly. A RAK ICC Foundation is a holding vehicle: a separate legal person, with its own council and charter, that owns assets on the family’s behalf and exists to hold and govern rather than to trade. A RAK operating company — set up through RAKEZ or another UAE free zone — exists to trade: it invoices clients, employs staff, and carries the commercial risk of a business. In most structures we build, the foundation sits above one or more operating companies, owning the shares rather than running the business itself.
Holds and governs. Owns shares, real estate or investment accounts; carries succession provisions in its charter; does not itself trade or invoice.
Foundation setup guide →Trades. Holds the trade licence, employs staff, signs contracts — the entity that does the business, usually owned by the foundation above it rather than by family members directly.
Set up an operating company ↗The choice is usually driven by scale and by how much control the family wants to retain over staffing and cost.
Five stages. Most families are through the first three inside a quarter, depending on documentation and approvals.
What is held, where, by whom, and what the family wants the structure to achieve.
Foundation or holding chain, jurisdictions, and how the operating businesses sit beneath it.
Registrations, charters and registers, banking introductions and onboarding.
Council, decision rights, investment policy and succession memorandum, drafted and agreed.
Reporting cadence, filings, reviews and the next generation's introduction to the structure.
Timings are indicative and depend on documentation, source-of-wealth review and approval by the relevant authority.
Russian, Kazakh and wider CIS families relocating or diversifying capital, where cross-border tax treaty coordination and access to banking outside the home jurisdiction are usually the starting point.
A single operating business where the owner wants the personal capital separated from the business before a sale, investment round or succession event — not after one.
Assets already held across the UAE, Europe, the UK or Asia under separate, uncoordinated local arrangements that need one structure sitting above them rather than another one alongside.
The questions that come up in almost every first conversation.
Bring the situation, not a brief. We will tell you whether a family office is the right answer or whether a simpler structure does the job.
Trade licences, professional and industrial activities, offices and visas run through RAKEFZ — the all-in-one company setup portal for RAK, Dubai and the wider UAE.
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