An apartment in Jerusalem left to children in Toronto. A savings account in Tel Aviv belonging to a grandmother who died in Manchester.
These are not unusual cases in a country where a large share of privately held property belongs to people who do not live in it. And they share a common feature: the family assumes the will drafted at home covers everything, and discovers otherwise at the worst possible moment.
Four Forms, and No Fifth
Israeli succession is governed by the Succession Law of 1965, which recognises exactly four forms of will: one written entirely in the testator's own hand; one signed before two witnesses; one made before an authority - a judge, a registrar or a notary, and abroad an Israeli consular officer; and an oral will made in the face of death. A document falling outside these forms is at risk, and the court's power to cure defects reaches only peripheral flaws such as a missing date. A missing signature cannot be saved.
Two rules trip people up regularly. A gift to anyone who drafted or witnessed the will - or to that person's spouse - is void, without any need to prove wrongdoing. And testamentary capacity, the most litigated issue of all, is decided on evidence gathered at the moment of signing: a medical opinion dated close to it, a contemporaneous attendance note, sometimes a video.
Nothing Moves Without a Court Order
An Israeli will does not operate of its own force. A probate order from the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs is required before title can be registered or bank funds released. Until it is issued, the property cannot be sold or mortgaged while municipal tax and building charges continue to accrue. The process involves publication, a short window for objections, and review by the Administrator General. An objection transfers the file to the Family Court, and a matter of months becomes one of years.
The Split That Surprises Everyone
Israeli courts have jurisdiction wherever the deceased left assets in Israel - an apartment or a bank account is enough, and citizenship is irrelevant. The governing law is that of the deceased's last residence, meaning the actual centre of his life rather than his passport. But Israeli real estate always devolves under Israeli law, whatever the residence. One estate therefore splits between two systems: a Tel Aviv apartment owned by a New York resident passes under Israeli law; his Israeli bank account passes under New York law.
Where the deceased lived abroad, the file moves to the Family Court and the heirs must file a formal expert opinion on foreign law - a requirement that surprises most families in both cost and delay. Evidence that the centre of his life was in fact in Israel may remove it altogether.
A will validly executed abroad is generally recognised as to form, but apostille authentication is needed and often a notarised Hebrew translation. Common-law drafting, built around trusts and executor machinery, sits awkwardly with Israeli practice, and foreign wills frequently fail to name the Israeli asset at all. Professional practice therefore leans toward a separate Israeli will covering the Israeli assets only, coordinated with the foreign will and drafted without any sweeping revocation clause that would inadvertently destroy it. As Rachel Shachar, an Israeli lawyer and expert in inheritance and guardianship law, observes from cross-border files, the recurring failure is rarely a bad will - it is two good wills that were never read against each other. Heirs abroad need not travel to Israel. A power of attorney signed before a local notary and authenticated by apostille allows the matter to be handled remotely, though the timetable runs longer than a domestic estate.
Tax
Israel has levied no inheritance tax since 1981, regardless of citizenship or residence - receiving the asset is simply not a taxable event. But capital gains tax applies on a later sale of inherited real estate, calculated from the date the deceased originally bought the property rather than the date of death. This is a fundamental divergence from the US stepped-up basis, and it can turn fifty years of appreciation into a tax bill. A specific exemption exists for an inherited residential apartment, subject to conditions worth verifying before a sale is agreed. Separately, the US and UK tax estates by reference to citizenship or domicile, and the Israel-US tax treaty does not extend to estate tax.
Bottom Line
Plan while you can. Establishing which documents exist, what each one governs territorially, and who is actually named on the beneficiary forms takes a meeting or two - and can spare the next generation years.
Rachel (Rachel) Schachar, Advocate and Notary, is ranked among the 50 leading practitioners in inheritance, family and divorce law in the Duns100 ranking This article is a general survey and does not constitute legal or tax advice.