Order of Preference

What is the principle governing the division of a deceased's estate amongst his heirs?

 

The Inheritance Law lists a series of circles/levels of close relatives who were at the centre of the deceased's life. Those on the closest level inherit first, and potential heirs on the next level only inherit if there are no heirs on the level before them, and so on. All these are blood relatives, but whether they inherit anything, and the size of their share, depends on whether the deceased had a spouse when he/she died.

Which blood relatives belong to the first or highest level?

 

The first circle of blood relatives having the strongest inheritance rights in the deceased's estate covers the deceased's children and their issue (i.e. the deceased's grandchildren and great-grandchildren).

Which blood relatives belong to the second or intermediate level? 

 

The second circle of blood relatives covers the deceased's parents and their issue (the deceased's brothers and sisters etc).

 

Do heirs on the same level have equal or different rights?

 

Equal rights. For example, a share of the deceased's estate belonging to the children will be divided between each child equally, so each gets a share of the same size/value.

What happens if some of the heirs on the same level are alive and some are dead?

 

The children of the deceased heirs will inherit the deceased heirs share, and share it equally between them.

 

Will the deceased's children always inherit according to law?

 

Yes, but their share will vary according to whether the deceased left a spouse . If there is a surviving spouse, then the children will share the estate with him/her.If there is no surviving spouse, they will inherit all the estate, which will be divided among them equally.

How will the deceased's estate be divided if all his/her children are dead, but they had children?

 

The deceased children's share will be divided equally amongst the grandchildren, who belong to the first level of relatives. 

When will parents inherit?

 

Where there are no blood relatives on the first level left i.e. no children or grandchildren.

When might grandparents inherit?  

When there are no blood relatives on the first or second levels i.e. no children or grandchildren, or parents or their issue .

 

How can relatives on the 'third levels or circle' of heirs succeed in proving that they are entitled to inherit from the deceased's estate?

 

They need to prove that there are the closest surviving relatives of the deceased i.e. that there are no relatives on the first and second levels. In a case before Tel Aviv Family Court decided in April 2005 to reject an application for an inheritance order by the daughter of the deceased's father's brother. She was on the third level of relatives, and claimed that there was no-one on the previous two levels. The court , however, did not accept the evidence she provided – based mainly on witnesses' evidence prepared for the Yad VaShem museum on the Holocaust in Jerusalem.

It held that the second circle of relatives was incomplete because there was no information about how many children were born to the deceased's parents. The Supreme Court has ruled in the Freidman case that if factual proof cannot be obtained about the existence of a possible heir, or which rules out this possibility, the estate can be divided amongst the surviving relatives if it is proved that they have made thorough and reasonable steps to trace any other possible heirs. However, in this case , the court was not sufficiently satisfied and was unclear about the fate of the deceased's own nephews and nieces who were on the second level of relatives, above the applicants.

Is there any precedent about the effort a person trying to prove his inheritance claim must make to establish that there are no closer relatives entitled to inherit instead of, or together with him?

 

Yes – the Supreme Court held in December 2003 that if it is not possible to point to factual findings providing the possibility of the existence of a potential heir, or the non-existence of one, on the globe, then the person wishing to inherit must prove that he made all reasonable efforts, in an objective sense, to this end. Each case will be decided on its own, unique circumstances, and what is reasonable in one case will be different than what is reasonable in another. The search methods employed will be examined in detail.