Funds & Financial Services
Regulation.

Funds & Asset Management

Fund formation is one of the firm's most developed DIFC practices. Emirates Legal has structured and launched funds across the Centre's full vehicle range, with substantial work in the protected cell space — incorporating Protected Cell Companies and advising managers and family offices on how cellular structures ring-fence assets and liabilities between strategies and investors. The practice extends through the fund's life: manager licensing, offering documents, investor negotiation, administration and custody appointments, and eventual restructuring or wind-down.

• Fund structuring and formation — Qualified Investor Funds, Exempt Funds and Public Funds
• Investment company, investment partnership, investment trust and Variable Capital Company vehicles
• Protected Cell Company incorporation and cellular fund structures — a core specialism of the practice
• Private Placement Memoranda, information memoranda and Public Fund prospectuses
• Limited Partnership Agreements, subscription documents, side letters and capital call mechanics
• Fund Manager licensing and External Fund Manager / delegated management arrangements
• Fund administration, custody, trustee and depositary appointments
• Feeder, master-feeder and umbrella structures
• Private equity, venture capital, real estate, credit, hedge and property fund launches
• Islamic and Shari'a-compliant fund structuring and Shari'a Supervisory Board arrangements
• Foreign fund registration and cross-border marketing into and from the DIFC
• Comparative DIFC / ADGM / AIFC fund domicile analysis and parallel structures
• Fund restructurings, mergers, transfers, wind-downs and terminations
• DFSA Consultation Paper 173 readiness — assessing the proposed overhaul of the collective investment framework against existing and planned structures

Financial Services Regulation & Licensing

• DFSA authorisation across Categories 1, 2, 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 4 and 5 — banking, principal and agency dealing, custody, asset management, money services, advisory and Islamic finance
• Representative Office and Innovation Testing Licence applications
• Crypto token and digital asset licensing under the DFSA rules in force from 12 January 2026, including firm-level token suitability assessments and the separate Fiat Crypto Token recognition route
• Prudential capital planning, including the Activity-Based Capital Requirement introduced from 1 July 2026
• Regulatory business plans, financial projections and Authorised Individual applications
• Variation, extension and withdrawal of licences; change in control approvals
• Compliance manuals, AML/CTF frameworks and internal governance policies
• Outsourcing, delegation and cross-border service arrangements
• DFSA supervisory engagement, thematic reviews, investigations and enforcement response
• Comparative licensing analysis across the DFSA, ADGM FSRA and AIFC AFSA regimes