My parent in Israel has dementia and the bank has stopped acting on their instructions. What can I do from abroad?

The bank has done what the law requires of it. An ordinary power of attorney, including one you signed together at a branch in Netanya five years ago, lapses the moment the person who gave it loses capacity, and a bank on notice of incapacity that keeps acting on it is exposed. If your parent signed a continuing power of attorney before things deteriorated, that document is the answer and it should be activated. If they did not, the route is a guardianship order from the Family Court under Section 33(a)(4) of the Legal Capacity and Guardianship Law 5722-1962, which covers a person who cannot, permanently or temporarily, look after their affairs in whole or in part and has nobody authorised and willing to do so for them.

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Detailed Answer

Living abroad does not disqualify you. Section 34 sets out who may be appointed, including an individual, a corporation and the Administrator General, and Section 35 directs the court to appoint whoever appears most suitable in the circumstances for the benefit of the person concerned, taking their wishes into account. Courts routinely appoint children living in New York, London or Melbourne, particularly where the alternative is a professional guardian charging fees against the estate. They also, increasingly, look for something less restrictive first. The 2016 amendment that introduced the continuing power of attorney also pushed Israeli courts to consider supported decision-making and partial guardianship before imposing full guardianship, so a well-drafted application asks for authority over property and finance only, rather than over the person as well, where medical decisions are not actually in dispute. Narrow applications are granted faster and they attract less supervision afterwards.

Two features of the appointment matter for a child abroad. The first is the reporting burden. Section 51 requires the guardian to submit an inventory of the ward's assets and liabilities to the Administrator General within thirty days of appointment, unless that office exempts them, and annual accounts follow. That means locating every Israeli bank account, provident fund, insurance policy and property, from another country, on a thirty-day clock that starts when the order is made rather than when you are ready. Start the search before you file, not after. The second is that the court will want to know how a guardian in another time zone will actually function: who will visit, who will deal with the caregiver, how the arnona and the health fund payments will be handled. Applications from abroad are strengthened by naming an Israeli co-guardian or a local lawyer with a defined role, and weakened by silence on the practicalities. Where the family is divided, expect the Administrator General to take a position and expect the process to lengthen considerably.

The banking side then has its own choreography. An Israeli bank will not simply accept a copy of the order emailed from abroad. It will want a certified copy, identification of the guardian to its own standards, and often a personal appearance or a consular-verified identification process, and it will restrict the account to transactions consistent with the scope of the order. Expect the bank to refuse anything that looks like a transfer for the guardian's own benefit, including repayment of money you spent on your parent's care, unless the court has expressly authorised it. Plan the sequence so that the urgent payments, the caregiver, the nursing home deposit, the arnona, are identified in the application itself and covered by the order, rather than being negotiated with a branch manager afterwards. Anyone reading this while their own parents are still well should read our answer on the Israeli continuing power of attorney for non-residents, because everything described here is what that document exists to avoid.

In Practice: The appointment is made by the Family Court under Section 33(a)(4) of the Legal Capacity and Guardianship Law 5722-1962, with Section 34 governing who may serve and Section 35 directing the court to the most suitable candidate. The Administrator General (Apotropus HaKlali) at the Ministry of Justice supervises, and Section 51 requires the asset and liability inventory within 30 days of appointment. An uncontested application supported by current medical opinion typically takes 3 to 6 months from filing to order, against 2 to 4 weeks to confirm a continuing power of attorney that was signed in advance, and lawyer's fees on a contested guardianship commonly run NIS 15,000 to NIS 40,000 compared with NIS 1,500 to NIS 5,000 to draft the continuing power of attorney while capacity remained.

When to Consult a Lawyer

• Siblings disagree about who should be appointed or about whether guardianship is needed at all, since a contested application draws in the Administrator General and can leave the account frozen for the better part of a year.
• Your parent signed a continuing power of attorney but you cannot find it or are unsure it was properly deposited, because activating an existing instrument is far quicker than starting a guardianship and the deposit can be checked directly.
• Money is needed urgently for care, where the application should ask for interim relief and should name the specific payments, rather than leaving the guardian to argue with the bank once the order is granted.

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

An Israeli lawyer can check first whether a continuing power of attorney was deposited, file a narrowly framed property and finance guardianship application that a court will grant to a child living abroad, and handle the bank and the Administrator General reporting afterwards.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.