diff --git a/merlin/config/__init__.py b/merlin/config/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a1f37a010
--- /dev/null
+++ b/merlin/config/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+#
+# Copyright (c) 2024, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+#
+
+_DASK_QUERY_PLANNING_ENABLED = False
+try:
+    # Disable query-planning and string conversion
+    import dask
+
+    dask.config.set(
+        {
+            "dataframe.query-planning": False,
+            "dataframe.convert-string": False,
+        }
+    )
+except ImportError:
+    dask = None
+else:
+    import sys
+
+    import dask.dataframe as dd
+    from packaging.version import parse
+
+    if parse(dask.__version__) > parse("2024.6.0"):
+        # For newer versions of dask, we can just check
+        # the official DASK_EXPR_ENABLED constant
+        _DASK_QUERY_PLANNING_ENABLED = dd.DASK_EXPR_ENABLED
+    else:
+        # For older versions of dask, we must assume query
+        # planning is enabled if dask_expr was imported
+        # (because we can't know for sure)
+        _DASK_QUERY_PLANNING_ENABLED = "dask_expr" in sys.modules
+
+
+def validate_dask_configs():
+    """Central check for problematic config options in Dask"""
+    if _DASK_QUERY_PLANNING_ENABLED:
+        raise NotImplementedError(
+            "Merlin does not support the query-planning API in "
+            "Dask Dataframe yet. Please make sure query-planning is "
+            "disabled before dask.dataframe is imported.\n\ne.g."
+            "dask.config.set({'dataframe.query-planning': False})"
+            "\n\nOr set the environment variable: "
+            "export DASK_DATAFRAME__QUERY_PLANNING=False"
+        )
+
+    if dask is not None and dask.config.get("dataframe.convert-string"):
+        raise NotImplementedError(
+            "Merlin does not support automatic string conversion in "
+            "Dask Dataframe yet. Please make sure this option is "
+            "disabled.\n\ne.g."
+            "dask.config.set({'dataframe.convert-string': False})"
+            "\n\nOr set the environment variable: "
+            "export DASK_DATAFRAME__CONVERT_STRING=False"
+        )