Inheritance & Probate Q&A

It is complicated. A moshav farm unit, or nachlah, is usually leased from the Israel Land Authority and cannot be divided among heirs. Under Section 114 of the Succession Law 1965, an agricultural holding that would be harmed by division passes to a single heir who is able to work it, and that heir compensates the other heirs for their shares. A non-resident heir who cannot farm or reside on the unit often ends up receiving compensation rather than the holding itself.

For the division of an estate, no. Israel settles inheritance under the civil Succession Law 1965, which applies to a Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Druze, or secular deceased in exactly the same way, and the Inheritance Registrar or Family Court uses one set of statutory shares for everyone. A religious court can decide an inheritance only if every heir agrees in writing under Section 155. Religion still matters at the edges, because whether a person counts as a surviving spouse depends on a marriage the state recognises.

Israel does not use the common-law 'executor' role. An estate is settled through a succession order or will execution order from the Inheritance Registrar, and the assets pass to the heirs directly. A separate estate administrator (menahel izavon) is appointed by the court only when active management is needed, for example where heirs live abroad, the estate has debts or a business, or there is a dispute. The administrator's powers and duties come from Sections 78 to 96 of the Succession Law 1965.

You need a separate Israeli order. Israel does not reseal or automatically recognise a Canadian grant of probate, whether it is an Ontario Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee or a grant from another province, so an estate with Israeli assets needs its own succession order (tzav yerusha) or will execution order from the Inheritance Registrar under the Succession Law 1965. The Canadian grant is filed as supporting evidence, now apostilled since Canada joined the Apostille Convention in January 2024, and translated into Hebrew.

It is possible, but harder. Under Section 36(a) of the Succession Law 1965, a will that was in the testator's possession and cannot be located after death is presumed to have been destroyed with the intention of revoking it. To admit a copy, the heirs must file a separate application explaining why the original is missing and produce evidence strong enough to rebut that presumption. Because a lost-will petition is treated as contentious, the Inheritance Registrar transfers it to the Family Court rather than issuing the order administratively.

Israeli private international law points to the law of the deceased's last domicile, not the location of the assets. Under Section 137 of the Succession Law 1965, if you die domiciled abroad, the succession law of that country generally decides who inherits your Israeli property, though Israeli law can still govern real estate located in Israel through Section 138. Either way, an Israeli succession order from the Inheritance Registrar is needed to transfer the Israeli assets, and that usually takes 6 to 14 weeks when uncontested.

Yes. An Israeli keren hishtalmut is a provident-style savings fund, and on death it passes either to the beneficiary the holder named on the fund, in which case it falls outside the estate under Section 147 of the Succession Law 1965, or, if no beneficiary was named, to the heirs under an Israeli succession order. Australian heirs claim it by presenting apostilled identity documents and either the beneficiary proof or the succession order to the fund manager, then transferring the balance to Australia after Israeli tax clearance.

In principle yes, the Inheritance Registrar accepts online applications, but non-residents almost never file directly. The portal is in Hebrew, verifies identity against Israeli records, and requires fee payment and newspaper publication that are awkward to arrange from abroad, so foreign heirs file through an Israeli lawyer under power of attorney. The application fee is about NIS 516 plus roughly NIS 130 for publication, and an uncontested order under the Succession Law 1965 typically issues in 6 to 14 weeks.

You need a separate Israeli order. Israel does not reseal or automatically recognise a foreign grant of probate the way some Commonwealth countries reseal each other's, so an estate with Israeli assets requires its own succession order (tzav yerusha) or will execution order (tzav kiyum tzavaa) from the Inheritance Registrar under the Succession Law 1965. The Australian grant is submitted as supporting evidence, apostilled through DFAT and translated into Hebrew. An Israeli bank or the Land Registry will act on the Israeli order, not the Australian one.

Yes. A couple can make mutual wills (tzavaot hadadiot) covering their Israeli assets, and Israeli law gives them special force under Section 8A of the Succession Law 1965. Once one spouse dies, the survivor cannot quietly rewrite the shared plan: to change their own will they must return whatever they took under the mutual will, or, while both are alive, give the other written notice. A non-resident couple can sign valid mutual wills abroad, but the wording has to fit Section 8A or the protection is lost.

Not directly. French succession often splits ownership into usufruit (use and income) and nue-propriete (bare ownership), typically giving a surviving spouse the usufruct. Israeli land law has no matching concept, and Israeli immovable property is governed by Israeli law, so a French usufruct cannot simply be registered at the Israeli Land Registry. The right usually has to be recreated through an Israeli instrument or a life-use arrangement. Israel levies no inheritance tax on the transfer.

Not the whole apartment automatically. Under Section 11 of the Succession Law 1965 a surviving spouse takes the household contents and the family car outright, plus half of the remaining estate when children or parents also survive. A separate rule gives the spouse the deceased's entire share of the family home and two-thirds of the rest if the couple lived there together for at least three years. In most families the apartment ends up co-owned by the spouse and the children.