Serving as Executor of an Israeli Estate From the UK

A solicitor in London opens a deceased client's file, sees an apartment in Netanya and a long-dormant account at Bank Leumi, and reaches for the obvious tool: the English grant of probate. It is the wrong tool. The grant that unlocks every bank and registry in England and Wales does nothing in Israel. No Israeli bank will release a shekel on it, and the Land Registry (Tabu) will not move a title on it.

This trips up UK executors more than any other single point. You are effectively running two estates that never speak to each other — the English one, where the grant and HMRC govern, and the Israeli one, where the Inheritance Registrar controls everything. The English authority simply stops at the border.

This guide is about the Israeli side and how a UK executor handles it without leaving home. For the underlying Israeli court mechanics, our complete guide to Israeli probate sets out the procedure in detail; here the focus is the UK–Israel intersection that catches executors out.

Why Your Grant of Probate Stops at the Border

UK practitioners often assume resealing will solve the problem, because the Colonial Probates Act 1892 lets grants from certain Commonwealth and former-colonial jurisdictions be resealed elsewhere. Israel is not one of those jurisdictions, and the reciprocity does not run in this direction. More fundamentally, Israeli courts do not reseal foreign grants of any kind. The English grant is evidence, not authority.

Israel administers estates under the Succession Law 1965 (Hok HaYerusha). To deal with any Israeli asset you need one of two orders, both issued by the Inheritance Registrar (Rasham HaYerushot) at the Ministry of Justice:

• A succession order (tzav yerusha) where there is no will, distributing the estate by the statutory order in Sections 10–17 of the Succession Law.
• A will execution order (tzav kiyum tzavaa) where there is a will, validating it for Israeli purposes.

An English will is not dead on arrival. Under Section 137 of the Succession Law, a will valid under the law of the place where it was made can be recognised in Israel. But recognition is never automatic. The will has to be lodged with the Israeli Registrar, translated, supported by apostilled proof, and confirmed by an Israeli will execution order before it touches the Netanya flat.

In Practice: Filing for a succession or will execution order with the Inheritance Registrar (Rasham HaYerushot) carries a state fee of roughly NIS 545, plus a publication fee of about NIS 130 for the newspaper notice required under Section 67 of the Succession Law 1965. That notice opens a 14-day window for objections. An uncontested order is normally issued 3–6 months after a complete file is lodged — but the clock only starts once every UK document is apostilled and translated, which is where the real delay sits.

The Documents You Sign in the UK

Because you will not appear in Israel, the entire file is assembled remotely. The package an Israeli attorney typically needs from a UK executor includes:

1. A power of attorney authorising the Israeli lawyer to act, signed before a notary public in the UK and apostilled
2. The death certificate, apostilled
3. The will, if any, with an apostille or notarial certification
4. The grant of probate, useful as supporting evidence even though it has no operative force
5. Proof of the heirs' identities and their relationship to the deceased

Each UK public document needs an apostille from the Legalisation Office of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in Milton Keynes. A solicitor's or notary's signature is apostilled directly; a document like a death certificate is apostilled as issued. Executors sometimes send papers for full consular legalization at the Israeli embassy, which Israel does not require — both the UK and Israel are parties to the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention, so a single apostille is enough.

Anything not in Hebrew or English must then be translated, and Israeli authorities generally insist on a notarized Hebrew translation of foreign documents. Build that step into the timeline early rather than discovering it at the Registrar's counter.

Two Tax Systems, No Israeli Inheritance Tax

Here UK executors get a pleasant surprise followed by a catch.

The pleasant surprise: Israel abolished its estate duty in 1981. There is no Israeli inheritance tax on the value passing to the heirs. The transfer of the Netanya apartment into the heirs' names does not itself trigger an Israeli tax bill.

The catch is twofold. First, for a UK-domiciled deceased, UK inheritance tax applies to the worldwide estate. The Israeli apartment and the Leumi account count toward the UK estate and must be valued and reported on form IHT400 and the foreign property schedule IHT417. With the nil-rate band at £325,000 and IHT charged at 40% above it, the Israeli assets can push the estate well into charge — and because Israel levies no inheritance tax, there is nothing to credit against the UK bill.

Second, Israel taxes the later sale of an inherited asset, not the inheritance itself. The heir inherits the deceased's original purchase price as the cost base for Israeli betterment tax (mas shevach), under Section 26 of the Real Estate Taxation Law 1963. So a flat bought decades ago for a modest sum and sold today by the heirs generates Israeli capital gains tax measured from that original price.

In Practice: On a later sale, betterment tax (mas shevach) is assessed by the Israel Tax Authority (Rashut HaMisim) under the Real Estate Taxation Law 1963 at up to 25% of the real gain for an inherited property, with the cost base fixed at the deceased's original acquisition price under Section 26. A self-assessment must be filed within 30 days of signing the sale contract. An apartment acquired decades ago for the equivalent of NIS 250,000 and sold for NIS 3,000,000 produces Israeli tax on most of that NIS 2.75M gain. UK executors who close the estate without preserving the Israeli purchase records leave the heirs to reconstruct the cost base years later, usually at a disadvantage.

When an Estate Administrator Is Needed

Most Israeli estates do not need a formally appointed administrator (menahel izavon). Once the succession or will execution order issues, the heirs can deal with the assets directly through the lawyer holding their power of attorney. An administrator becomes necessary where the estate is complex, contested, or holds assets that must be actively managed or sold before distribution.

The point that matters for a UK executor: you cannot simply transplant your English role. Israeli practice strongly favours an administrator who is resident in Israel with a local service address, and the Family Court will hesitate to appoint a non-resident with no presence in the country.

In Practice: Where an administrator is appointed, Section 78 of the Succession Law 1965 places the appointment with the Family Court, and Section 82 requires the administrator to file a full inventory of estate assets — typically within three months. The court can require a security bond and supervises the account. For a non-resident UK executor, the practical route is to nominate an Israeli lawyer or trusted local administrator under court appointment, with appointment usually taking 4–8 weeks from an uncontested application at the Family Court.

What Often Goes Wrong

Common Mistake: Relying on the English grant of probate — or attempting to "reseal" it — to deal with Israeli assets. Because Israel neither recognises nor reseals foreign grants, the bank simply refuses, and weeks are lost before the executor accepts that a separate Israeli order is required. Worse is the executor who asks a relative in Israel to withdraw funds "on account" before the order issues: that exposes the relative to personal liability under Section 107 of the Succession Law 1965, the bank reports the movement, and the Inheritance Registrar can demand repayment before issuing the order — adding 6–10 weeks and NIS 8,000–15,000 in legal costs to put right.

A second recurring error is appointing one lawyer to run both estates. An English solicitor cannot file at the Israeli Inheritance Registrar, and an Israeli lawyer cannot advise on IHT400 or HMRC reporting. The model that works is two professionals coordinating, with the executor making sure each has the figures the other produces — the Israeli date-of-death valuations for the IHT account, and the UK grant and death certificate for the Israeli file.

Practical Checklist

• Establish exactly which Israeli assets exist before filing anything — bank, property, securities, pension funds
• Obtain FCDO apostilles on the death certificate, the will, the grant, and the power of attorney
• Arrange a notarized Hebrew translation of each foreign document
• Instruct an Israeli attorney to file for a succession order or will execution order with the Inheritance Registrar under your power of attorney
• Obtain Israeli date-of-death valuations of the property and accounts for the IHT400 and IHT417 schedules
• Preserve the Israeli original purchase records so the heirs can establish their cost base on a future sale
• Do not let anyone withdraw Israeli bank funds before the Israeli order is registered with the bank
• Coordinate the UK grant, IHT account, and Israeli filings as one timeline rather than two

Speak With an Israeli Attorney

Administering the Israeli part of an estate from the UK is largely a documents-and-sequencing exercise: getting the right apostilled file to the Inheritance Registrar, valuing the Israeli assets correctly for HMRC, and keeping the Israeli order in step with your English administration. We act for UK executors under power of attorney so you do not have to travel, and we work alongside your English solicitor and accountant.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.