Signature Programme · Private Client × Digital Assets

The Digital Wealth Family Office

Most family wealth is now part traditional, part digital — and most advisers handle only one half. The private-wealth firms are strong on succession and weak on custody keys; the crypto boutiques know the VARA rulebooks and nothing about family governance. Neo Legal’s Digital Wealth Family Office is one programme that designs both together: DIFC/ADGM structures, foundations and wills alongside regulated digital-asset custody, governance and wallet succession — one firm, one engagement, no seams.

Design the structure → Start with the SFO playbook
One roof
Family office + VARA + tax, one engagement
2015
Advising digital-asset principals since
DIFC · ADGM
Both common-law centres, used deliberately

Why the split-adviser model fails digital wealth

The standard failure pattern: a respected private-client firm builds the foundation and the wills; a crypto specialist sets up the trading entity; a Big-4 team does the tax memo — and nobody owns the seams. The foundation’s by-laws say nothing about key custody. The trading entity quietly drifts across the VARA perimeter as the family’s activity grows. The will covers the villa but not the cold storage. Digital wealth concentrates risk precisely at the joints between advisers — which is why Neo Legal built a programme that has no joints.

What the programme covers

Structure: DIFC or ADGM family office entities, foundations, holding SPVs and re-domiciliation of existing vehicles — chosen against the family’s actual asset mix, not a template. The digital layer: custody architecture and custodian selection, VARA perimeter analysis for every family vehicle, exchange and OTC onboarding, token and RWA positions held institutionally. Governance: investment policy with digital-asset limits and authority matrices, family constitutions that bind both asset classes, single-point-of-failure elimination. Succession: DIFC/ADGM wills, foundation by-laws, and wallet succession — key recovery that works on incapacity or death, drafted with the operational reality, not around it. Tax: UAE corporate tax and QFZP positioning, home-country exit and reporting, coordinated by partner Michael Kohn and senior associate Ellen Karakoussis.

Three patterns we see every month

The crypto-heavy founder relocating to the UAE: exit planning at home, Golden Visa and residency, a DIFC or ADGM holding structure receiving the digital estate, custody moved from personal wallets to institutional arrangements, and a will that actually reaches the keys. The established family office adding digital exposure: perimeter analysis before the first trade, custody and counterparty onboarding, investment-policy amendments, and governance so the digital sleeve reports like every other sleeve. The inheritance with wallets in it: recovering, securing and re-housing digital assets from an estate — the scenario every family hopes never to run unprepared, and the strongest argument for designing succession while everyone is alive and cooperative.

One team, assembled for this

The programme is led by Harly Zappino, founder and managing partner — over 1,000 digital-asset and financial-services clients advised since 2015, and lead of the firm’s family-office practice — with Michael Kohn on international tax, David Kreltszheim on banking and custody arrangements, Ellen Karakoussis on succession-side tax, and the China Desk under May Wong for Chinese-speaking families. Regulated-activity questions draw on the same VARA practice that runs exchange licensing programmes end to end.

Digital wealth — frequently asked questions

Does a family office need a VARA licence to hold its own crypto?
Usually not for genuinely proprietary holdings - investing the family's own assets is generally outside the licensing perimeter. The analysis changes fast once the vehicle manages assets for wider family branches, co-invests third-party money, stakes or lends at scale, or starts to look like a business of providing virtual-asset services. Neo Legal maps each family vehicle against the VARA perimeter at design stage, so the structure never drifts into unlicensed territory as the activity grows.
DIFC or ADGM for a family office with significant digital assets?
Both are English-language common-law centres with strong foundation regimes; the digital-asset overlay is where they differ in practice - banking appetite, custody options, fund and SPV tooling, and how each centre's regulator views virtual-asset exposure. Neo Legal runs the comparison against the family's actual asset mix and operating plans rather than a generic checklist, and frequently uses both centres in one structure where that serves the family better.
How does succession planning work for crypto and digital assets?
Badly, if it is left to a conventional will. Digital-asset succession is an operational problem as much as a legal one: key custody and recovery arrangements that survive incapacity or death, DIFC or ADGM wills covering UAE-situs assets, foundation structures that hold wallets institutionally rather than personally, and clear authority rules so no single person is a single point of failure. Neo Legal designs the legal documents and the key-management reality together - either alone fails.
What does the Digital Wealth Family Office programme actually include?
One engagement covering: the DIFC/ADGM structure (family office entity, foundation, holding SPVs), the digital-asset layer (custody arrangements, VARA perimeter analysis, exchange and OTC onboarding), governance (investment policy including digital-asset limits, authority matrices, family constitution), succession (wills, foundation by-laws, wallet succession), and the tax overlay (UAE corporate tax, home-country exit and reporting) - coordinated by Neo Legal as one team rather than four advisers emailing each other.
Who runs this work at Neo Legal?
The programme is led by founder and managing partner Harly Zappino, who has advised over 1,000 clients across digital assets and financial services since 2015 and leads the firm's family-office practice, with partner Michael Kohn on international tax, partner David Kreltszheim on banking and custody arrangements, and the China Desk under special counsel May Wong for Chinese-speaking families.
The construction library
DIFC Single Family Office Playbook
The structure decisions, in order.
DIFC Foundations
The wealth-holding vehicle at the core.
Family Office & UHNW Practice
The full private-client practice page.
VARA, End to End
The regulated layer, from the same team.

Wealth in two worlds, one structure?

Tell Neo Legal what the family holds and where it is heading. You will get a structure recommendation — centres, vehicles, custody and succession — from senior counsel, not a template.

Schedule a Consultation →