Why an Israeli probate file goes to the Family Court — and why it stalls

Succession · October 15, 2026 · 7 min read

The short answer

There are two separate "detours" an Israeli succession or probate application can take, and most explanations run them together. The first is a transfer to the Family Court under section 67A of the Succession Law: the Registrar of Inheritance loses the file, it becomes a court claim, and litigation timescales apply. Since 1 July 2023 that happens on five grounds only — an objection, the State as a party, the Attorney General joining, the Administrator General representing an heir, or the Registrar’s own discretion. A deceased who lived abroad, a will with a formal defect and an oral will no longer trigger it. The second detour is a referral to the Attorney General’s representative at the Administrator General under regulation 54 of the Succession Regulations: the Registrar keeps the file but must hear the State first, and the representative has 45 days to respond. That is the "45 days" that circulates on the internet as if it were an objection window. It is not; the heirs’ objection window is 14 days. A file that has gone quiet is usually sitting in the second detour, not the first.

1. Section 67A as it stands today

Section 66(a) gives the Registrar the power to declare heirs’ rights. Section 67A(a) lists the cases in which, "notwithstanding section 66(a)", an application filed with the Registrar is transferred to the court:

1. an objection has been filed;
2. the State or one of its institutions is a party;
3. the Attorney General or his representative has seen fit to initiate or join proceedings;
4. the Administrator General represents in the application a person whose property it manages, or an absentee;
5. – 7. repealed;
8. the Registrar has seen fit to transfer the application.

Paragraphs 5 to 7 — an oral will under section 23, a will with a defect or omission under section 25, and a succession to which Chapter 7 (private international law) applies — were repealed by Amendment 18 to the Succession Law, enacted in the Economic Plan Law 2023–2024 and in force from 1 July 2023. The Knesset’s explanatory material gave the reason: experience showed most such files were simple to decide, and the Registrar had been asking for years to be allowed to grant probate of a defective will where everyone concerned agreed. The effect is measurable. In the Administrator General’s 2025 activity report, 1,197 applications concerning a foreign-resident deceased were closed by the Registrar in the year, 33 of them by transfer to court — some for unrelated reasons — and across all files 98 per cent were decided by the Registrar. An English-language page that says "a foreign will almost always means the Family Court", or lists "a minor heir" or "a deceased resident abroad" as grounds for transfer, is describing the law before July 2023. (The reference to a minor in paragraph 4 is also gone; a minor or guardianship heir now routes the file to the Attorney General’s representative, below, not to court.)

When a transfer does happen, regulation 20 sends the whole file; regulation 21 recasts the parties — applicant as plaintiff, objector or State as defendant — and section 67A(b) deems the application a claim under section 1 of the Family Court Law 1995. The court may declare the heirs’ rights as the Registrar would have (section 67A(b)) and copies its order to the Registrar for the national register (section 67A(c), section 73D). It may also appoint a temporary estate administrator to preserve the estate meanwhile (section 77) — the usual first application once an objection has been filed and an apartment is standing empty.

2. The Attorney General’s representative — the detour that actually stalls files

Regulation 54(a1) requires the applicant to serve a copy of the application on the Attorney General’s representative at the Administrator General whenever, in an application to the Registrar, any of the following applies:

• the will benefits a public purpose or a public endowment;
• the will is oral (section 23);
• the will has a defect or omission under section 25;
• an heir, beneficiary or renouncing heir is an absentee, a person under guardianship (or a guardianship application is pending), or a person whose lasting power of attorney has been activated;
• none of the heirs or beneficiaries is a child or descendant, a parent or a parent’s descendant, or the spouse of the deceased.

The last item is the one that catches families abroad: a will leaving the Israeli apartment to nieces, to a friend, or to a charity has no "close relative" beneficiary and must go to the representative. Regulation 54(d) adds the Registrar’s discretion to refer any file "for special reasons" — a foreign-domiciled deceased whose foreign-law opinion raises a question is a typical candidate. Regulation 54(b) then gives the representative 45 days from service to announce whether he wishes to appear or argue; regulation 54(c) lets him ask for more time for enquiries. If he does not appear, the Registrar decides; if he does, the file either resolves on his comments or, where he decides to join proceedings, goes to court under section 67A(a)(3).

The official timing (Administrator General guides and service pages) is about 50 days to an order where the representative is involved, with an initial response inside 30 days. The State Comptroller’s 2016 audit, the last published, found the representative’s review averaging 67 days and exceeding the 45-day period in about two thirds of files. That gap — a statutory 45 days that in practice runs longer, in a file that nobody has told the heirs abroad was referred — is the single most common reason a "six-week" application turns into a four-month one.

3. The 14 days, the 45 days, and the other clocks

Clock	Whose	Period	Source
Objection to the application	Any interested person	14 days from publication (minimum two weeks); extendable even after expiry; in any event until the order is granted	s.67; reg. 17(a); reg. 19(b)
Response of the Attorney General’s representative	The State	45 days from service of the application; extendable for enquiries	reg. 54(b)–(c)
Objection by beneficiaries of a deposited or later will	Those beneficiaries	14 days from notice	reg. 18(b); reg. 22
Deemed service of registered mail	—	10th day after posting	reg. 52
Response to an application to amend or cancel an order	The other heirs	14 days	reg. 27(b)(2)
Appeal against the Registrar’s decision	Any party	15 days, to the Family Court	reg. 46; s.151A
Striking out an inactive file	The Registrar	After a show-cause notice	reg. 54B

Where the "45 days" originally leaked into English-language guides is not hard to guess: the rabbinical courts’ own succession-order form tells applicants to wait "up to 45 days from filing, provided 15 days have passed since publication" for the Registrar’s answer — the same State response period, seen from the religious-court track. It was never the heirs’ deadline.

4. Reading a stalled file

The Registrar’s online file shows a status, not a reason. Four explanations cover most silent files. First, the file is with the Attorney General’s representative under regulation 54 — either because it had to be (no close-relative beneficiary is the usual trigger in files from abroad) or because the Registrar referred it; the question to ask is whether a response or a request for enquiries has issued. Second, a deficiency notice went to the e-mail address on file and was not seen; regulation 14(d) makes the online account the channel. Third, the register turned up a deposited will or a later will, and notice went to its beneficiaries with 14 days to object (regulations 18(b) and 22) — the file is not stalled, it is waiting. Fourth, the file was transferred under section 67A, usually after an objection, and now exists as a Family Court claim under a new number; the Registrar’s screen will not say so in terms. A file nobody moves can eventually be struck out after a show-cause notice (regulation 54B), which is why a lawyer’s account rather than an heir’s private e-mail should be the address of record.

5. What this means for a family abroad

• A parent who lived abroad does not, by itself, mean court. It means a foreign-law opinion (section 137) and the Registrar in the district of the Israeli asset (regulation 13(a)). The opinion is given by a lawyer in that country; the Israeli lawyer files it.
• A will in favour of anyone other than children, parents or spouse means the Attorney General’s representative. Budget the 45 days, and expect the representative’s questions to go to the Israeli lawyer; answer them in one complete bundle.
• An objection means court, whatever else is true. The decision whether to object, or to settle before publication, is the one that sets the timescale — weeks or years. Families split across continents resolve more of these by a written division agreement than by litigation.
• Before any of this: the sequence for heirs abroad, the signing options and the documents are in the step-by-step article; which order a given situation needs is in the decision guide.

Frequently asked questions

Does a will made abroad, or a deceased who lived abroad, send the file to the Family Court?

Not any more. Until 30 June 2023 section 67A(a)(7) required transfer whenever the private-international-law chapter applied — in practice every foreign-domiciled deceased — and (5)–(6) covered oral and formally defective wills. Amendment 18 repealed all three. Today the Registrar decides those files unless one of the remaining grounds applies: an objection, the State as a party, the Attorney General joining, the Administrator General representing an heir, or the Registrar’s own decision to refer.

What is the ‘45 days’ I keep reading about?

Regulation 54(b): once a copy of the application is served on the Attorney General’s representative, that representative has 45 days to say whether he will appear or argue. It is the State’s response period in files that must be referred to it under regulation 54(a1). It is not the heirs’ objection window, which is 14 days from publication (section 67; regulation 17), and it is not a waiting period in ordinary files, which never reach the representative.

Which files go to the Attorney General’s representative?

Regulation 54(a1): where no heir or beneficiary is a child, descendant, parent or spouse of the deceased (nieces, friends, charities); where an heir or beneficiary is an absentee, under guardianship, subject to a pending guardianship application or an activated lasting power of attorney; where the will is oral or has a formal defect under section 25; and where it benefits a public purpose. Under regulation 54(d) the Registrar may refer any other file ‘for special reasons’ — a foreign-domiciled deceased with an unusual opinion is a typical example.

What does the Family Court do with a transferred file?

Section 67A(b): the application is treated as a claim under the Family Court Law; the applicant becomes plaintiff, the objector or the State becomes defendant (regulation 21). The court then has the full toolbox the Registrar lacks — evidence, witnesses, a temporary estate administrator under section 77 — and the timescale of litigation. A court order is copied back to the Registrar for registration (section 67A(c)).

The Registrar’s website shows no change for two months. What is happening?

Usually one of four things: the file is with the Attorney General’s representative (regulation 54 — ask whether a response or a request for enquiries has issued); the Registrar sent a deficiency notice that reached only the e-mail on file; a deposited or later will surfaced and notice went to its beneficiaries with 14 days to object (regulation 18(b), 22); or the file was referred under section 67A and is now a court claim with a new number. A file left without action may eventually be struck out after a show-cause notice (regulation 54B).

How long, realistically?

The Administrator General’s 2025 figures: about 37 days to a succession order and 45 days to a probate order on a complete file; around 50 days when the Attorney General’s representative is involved. The State Comptroller’s 2016 audit found the representative’s review averaging 67 days and exceeding 45 days in two thirds of files — the structural reason some files stall. No official figure exists for the Family Court after transfer; practitioners’ estimates of several months for an uncontested file and well over a year for a contested one are estimates, not statistics.

The above is general information on Israeli law only, current as of the date of publication, and does not constitute legal advice or a substitute for advice on your specific circumstances. Processing figures are the Administrator General’s published averages and vary by file. Consult a lawyer before acting.

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