What happens when a minor living abroad inherits Israeli assets?

A grandparent dies in Haifa and leaves a share of an apartment to a nine-year-old grandchild in Melbourne. The family assumes the child's parents can simply collect or sell the share on the child's behalf, the way they would open a savings account. Israeli law lets the parents manage, but not freely. A minor's inheritance is hedged with protections that treat the child's property as something the parents hold in trust and the court keeps an eye on, and those protections reach across borders to a foreign child just as they do to an Israeli one.

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Detailed Answer

Nothing about being a minor stops the child inheriting. The estate is still resolved through the Registrar of Inheritance (רשם הירושות) with a succession order (צו ירושה) on an intestacy, or a probate order (צו קיום צוואה) where there is a will, and the child is named as an heir to their share exactly as an adult would be. What changes is who may act on the property afterwards. Under the Legal Capacity and Guardianship Law 1962 (חוק הכשרות המשפטית והאפוטרופסות), a minor's parents are their natural guardians and are entitled to manage the child's property, so the parents step in without any special appointment. Our guide to Israeli probate covers how the order itself is obtained by heirs abroad.

The limit sits in Section 20 of that Law. For a defined list of significant dealings, parents cannot act on the child's property on their own authority and must obtain the Family Court's (בית המשפט לענייני משפחה) prior approval. Selling, mortgaging or transferring the minor's real estate is squarely on that list. So if the grandchild inherits a share of the apartment, the parents can hold and maintain it, but they cannot sell it, take a loan against it, or give it away without going to court first and showing the sale is in the child's interest. The court looks at price, necessity and what happens to the proceeds, and it can attach conditions, most commonly that the money be preserved for the child rather than spent. The Administrator General (האפוטרופוס הכללי) at the Ministry of Justice supervises guardians of minors and can require accounts and reports, which is why inherited funds are frequently directed into a protected or blocked arrangement that unlocks at 18 rather than being paid out to the parents to use.

For a child abroad the framework is the same, but the paperwork multiplies. The foreign parents are still the natural guardians, yet an Israeli bank or the Land Registry will want to see that status evidenced, and a foreign court order about the child usually has to be recognised or at least presented with an apostille and a Hebrew translation before an Israeli institution will act on it. A Section 20 application to sell an inherited apartment is filed in the Israeli Family Court and, in practice, run by an Israeli lawyer, because the court will not deal with an overseas family informally. The result families should plan for is delay and preservation rather than quick access: the child's share is safe, but it is also, deliberately, hard to reach before the child grows up.

In Practice: Under the Legal Capacity and Guardianship Law 1962 the parents are natural guardians of a minor heir, but Section 20 requires prior Family Court (בית המשפט לענייני משפחה) approval to sell, mortgage or transfer the minor's inherited real estate, with the Administrator General (האפוטרופוס הכללי) supervising. The underlying succession or probate order from the Registrar of Inheritance carries a fee of NIS 597 as at 1 January 2026, an uncontested order commonly takes several weeks to a few months, and a Section 20 sale application adds further court time before any apartment can be sold.

When to Consult a Lawyer

• The minor has inherited a share of Israeli real estate that the family wants or needs to sell, which cannot be done without a Section 20 application to the Israeli Family Court and evidence that the sale serves the child.
• The child has no surviving parent, or the parents disagree, in which case a guardian must be appointed and the Administrator General's involvement becomes central to who controls the inheritance.
• A foreign court has already made a guardianship or custody order for the child, and you need it recognised or accepted in Israel before an Israeli bank or the Land Registry will release or deal with the minor's share.

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

A minor's Israeli inheritance is protected rather than frozen, but reaching it early requires a Family Court application, and getting the guardianship evidence in order from abroad is what keeps that application moving.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.