My widowed sister died recently leaving an apartment and several bank accounts. She made a will leaving her apartment to me and her only child. She bequeathed her bank accounts to several cousins living abroad. The will was written a long time ago and their full addresses were not given, just the countries, and sometimes the towns, in which they lived. Can the Israeli beneficiaries inherit the money in Israel because we don’t know where or how to contact the beneficiaries abroad ?
By: דיאנה שאלתיאל•Published on: 13 May, 2022No ! They have a right to be informed of their potential inheritance and to receive anything due to them if the will is enforced .Efforts must be made as early as possible to find out the addresses of the beneficiaries so they can be included in the application for probate (order enforcing the will and allowing distribution of the estate) and served with a copy of it . If this is not done before application for probate is filed, the inheritance register will give instructions about tracing the foreign beneficiaries and/or alternative ways of serving them with the application for probate.
The Israeli beneficiaries have no right to the money in Israel if the foreign relatives, or their descendants are alive. It is possible that an executor will be appointed who will open an account on trust for the relatives until they can be traced.