My father signed an Israeli will and later a New York will saying it revokes all prior wills. Which one governs the Tel Aviv apartment?

Two wills, both properly signed, both valid where they were made, and a standard American revocation clause sitting in the later one. The family assumes the Israeli will still deals with the Israeli apartment because that is obviously what the father meant. The Inheritance Registrar does not work from what was obviously meant. It works from Section 36, and Section 36 is read as it is written.

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Detailed Answer

Section 36 of the Succession Law 1965 governs revocation. A testator may revoke a will expressly, by destroying it, or by making a later will, and a later will revokes an earlier one to the extent that its provisions contradict it. A clause stating that the testator revokes all wills previously made is an express revocation, and it does not carve out anything by implication merely because the drafting attorney in New York was thinking only about American assets. Where the later document is a full American will with a standard revocation clause and a residuary gift wide enough to cover property wherever situated, the earlier Israeli will has a real problem, and the heirs who benefit under one of the two documents will say so.

The consequence in the file is procedural before it is substantive. An application for a will execution order (tzav kiyum tzavaa) on the Israeli will goes to the Inheritance Registrar (Rasham HaYerushot) at the Ministry of Justice, which publishes the application and invites objections. An heir who produces the later foreign will and its revocation clause objects, and once a genuine dispute arises the file leaves the Registrar and moves to the Family Court. From there it stops being a paperwork exercise. The foreign will has to be proved as a valid will made abroad, foreign law is a question of fact in Israel and needs an expert affidavit from a lawyer qualified in the relevant state, everything has to be apostilled and translated by an Israeli notary, and the heirs give evidence, in practice by video with the court's leave. Meanwhile no order issues, and the bank and the Land Registry will move nothing.

The prevention is a drafting clause and it costs nothing. Each will should state expressly what it covers and what it does not: the Israeli will confined to assets situated in Israel and saying it does not revoke any will governing assets elsewhere, and the home country will carving out the Israeli assets in the same terms. Drafted as a matched pair they cover the whole estate with no gap and no overlap. Order of signature matters too, because whichever is signed second is the one whose revocation clause has to be checked. American families in particular should also be careful with a pour over will feeding a revocable living trust, since a revocation clause in that document does the same damage while the trust itself does nothing to move Israeli registered title. The full mechanics of the two document approach are set out in our guide on a separate Israeli will for non-residents.

In Practice: Section 36 of the Succession Law 1965 is applied literally by the Inheritance Registrar (Rasham HaYerushot), so a general revocation clause in a later foreign will reaches an earlier Israeli will unless the drafting says otherwise. On an uncontested file the application fee is roughly NIS 543 plus about NIS 130 for the mandatory publication, and the order commonly issues in 3 to 6 months. Once an objection based on a competing will is filed, the file transfers to the Family Court, the order is suspended for 4 to 10 weeks at minimum, and on a NIS 2.5M Israeli estate the delay plus competing representation has cost families NIS 20,000 to NIS 45,000 in legal fees that one drafting clause would have prevented.

When to Consult a Lawyer

• The later will was signed after the Israeli one and contains any revocation language at all, because the argument has to be prepared before the application is filed rather than after an objection lands.
• The American document is a pour over will attached to a living trust, since the revocation clause bites in Israel while the trust cannot itself transfer Israeli registered title.
• Both wills name different executors or different shares for the same Israeli asset, which converts a documentary question into a contested Family Court file where the foreign law expert evidence has to be planned from the start.

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

We read the two documents against Section 36 before anything is filed, tell you which application actually has a route to an order, and where a fresh pair of wills is still possible we draft them with matching territorial clauses so this never reaches your heirs.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.