Inheritance between same-sex partners in Israel: what the law says, what the courts added, and what a will settles
Same-sex couples cannot marry in Israel, and the Succession Law is still written in the words "a man and a woman". In practice the courts extended inheritance rights to these couples as well, but the extension rests on factual proof rather than on registered status. This page explains what the statute provides, what the case law added, and what can be arranged in advance through a will, a power of attorney and updated beneficiary forms.
"The surviving partner discovers his legal standing at the worst possible hour to discover it."
Igal Mor, Advocate and Notary
Who counts as a spouse under the Succession Law
The Succession Law lists the heirs at law and opens with the deceased's spouse. Alongside the spouse come the children and their descendants, the parents and their descendants, and the grandparents. This order decides who enters the picture and in what share, even where no will was left.
The spouse takes the movable property of the shared household, including a passenger car. Of the remainder of the estate the spouse takes one half where there are children, descendants or parents, and two thirds where there are siblings or grandparents.
The statute does not define a spouse as a person registered as married. For same-sex couples, who cannot marry in Israel, the question of who falls within the definition has no self-evident answer, and this is where the gap begins.
Succession Law, 5725-1965, sections 10 and 11. Checked in September 2026.
Marriage abroad, and registration in Israel
Israel has no civil marriage track, and none of the religious systems performs a marriage between partners of the same sex. The practical route is a ceremony under foreign law, followed by an application to register it in the population registry.
The Supreme Court held that the registration clerk records what appears on the foreign certificate and does not rule on the validity of the marriage. In 2023 the same approach was applied to online ceremonies performed under foreign law.
A point that is easy to miss follows from this. Registration is administrative and statistical, and it is important evidence that the relationship exists. It is not a judicial determination of personal status, and it does not remove the question of who inherits.
HCJ 143/62 Funk-Schlesinger v Minister of the Interior · HCJ 3045/05 Ben-Ari v Director of the Population Administration · AAA 7368/22 (2023). Description of the ruling, not a quotation. Free translation. Checked in September 2026.
Section 55 of the Succession Law: a quasi-will
A couple that never married, and also a couple married abroad whose status is disputed, relies on section 55 of the Succession Law. The marginal heading of the section is "quasi-will", and it gives the surviving partner what that partner would have received had the two been married.
"Where a man and a woman live a family life in a common household but are not married to each other, and one of them dies and at the time of death neither was married to another person, the survivor is treated as if the deceased had bequeathed to him what he would have received by law had they been married to each other, unless the deceased directed otherwise, expressly or by implication, in a will."
Succession Law, 5725-1965, section 55. Free translation.
Three conditions emerge from the wording: family life, a common household, and neither partner married to another person at the time of death. A fourth condition hides at the end, namely that the deceased did not direct otherwise in a will.
The difficulty is plain. The section is written as "a man and a woman".
Succession Law, 5725-1965, section 55. Free translation of the Hebrew text. Checked in September 2026.
How the courts extended it, and the limits of that extension
In 2004 the District Court in Nazareth faced the question. Two partners had run a common household for some forty years, and after one of them died the survivor applied for a succession order under section 55. The Attorney General's position was that the section applies to a man and a woman only.
The Family Court rejected the application. On appeal the District Court, by a majority, accepted the surviving partner's position and held that the inheritance rights in section 55 apply to same-sex partners as well. The reasoning rested on the purpose of the section, which was written for couples the law prevented from marrying.
Earlier still, the Supreme Court had recognised a same-sex partner for the purpose of a benefit granted to the partners of employees. That recognition concerned labour law rather than inheritance, but it laid the interpretive groundwork.
It is important to know what is not here. The inheritance judgment was given by a district court and not by the Supreme Court. It is persuasive and instructive, it is not binding precedent, and every case is examined on its own facts.
CA 3245/03 Estate of the late S.R. v Attorney General, District Court of Nazareth, 11 November 2004 · HCJ 721/94 El Al Israel Airlines v Danilowitz. Description of the ruling, not a quotation. Checked in September 2026.
What has to be proved, and where
An application for a succession order is filed with the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs. Where a claim under section 55 is raised, and particularly where there are objectors, the file is transferred to the Family Court and the question is decided on evidence.
What is examined is the two elements in the section: family life and a common household. Family life is learned from the relationship itself, and a common household is learned from the financial and everyday conduct of the partners.
The usual evidence includes a joint bank account, the registration of the home or the lease, payment of bills and taxes, affidavits from relatives and friends, and correspondence. The longer and more continuous the documentation, the easier the proof.
A point that surprises many: the burden falls on the surviving partner, against heirs at law who are required to prove nothing.
Succession Law, 5725-1965, sections 66 and 67. Checked in September 2026.
Wills, mutual wills and a durable power of attorney
A will turns an evidentiary question into a technical one. Instead of proving a relationship after death, a document written in advance is produced. Section 55 itself yields to a contrary direction in a will, so the will prevails over it in both directions.
The statute recognises several forms. A handwritten will is written entirely in the testator's hand, bears a date and is signed by the testator. A will before witnesses is signed before two witnesses after a declaration made to them. A will before an authority is made before a judge, the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs or a notary.
Partners may make mutual wills, written in reliance by each on the will of the other. The statute limits the freedom to revoke them, and that limit is precisely their purpose.
Alongside the will, a durable power of attorney governs the period before death. It sets out who is authorised to decide on property and health matters, and without it a partner may find himself with no standing before medical and financial bodies.
Succession Law, 5725-1965, sections 8A, 19, 20 and 22 · Legal Capacity and Guardianship Law, 5722-1962, the chapter on the durable power of attorney. Checked in September 2026.
Pension, provident funds and life insurance sit outside the estate
A large part of a working person's wealth does not pass by inheritance at all. Sums payable on death under an insurance contract, a pension fund or a provident fund are not part of the estate, unless it was expressly stipulated that they are payable to it.
The practical meaning is considerable. Whoever is registered as the beneficiary of the pension fund, the provident fund and the life insurance policy receives the money, even where the will says otherwise.
Updating the beneficiaries is therefore the cheapest and fastest step a couple can take. It is done with the managing body, without a court, and at times it changes more than any other document.
It is also worth checking how the pension fund's own rules define a spouse. Those rules decide who is entitled to a survivors' pension, and they are not identical to the Succession Law.
Succession Law, 5725-1965, section 147. Checked in September 2026.
Children, parenthood and their effect on inheritance
The children of the deceased are heirs at law. In a same-sex family the practical question is whose child a child is, and the answer depends on the parental arrangement made during life.
Parenthood of the partner who is not the biological parent is established by a judicial parentage order or through adoption. As long as no such arrangement is made, the bond exists in reality and does not exist in the registry, and therefore it creates no inheritance right.
The gap runs both ways. The child does not inherit from the unregistered parent, and that parent does not inherit from the child. Many families discover this only when a succession order is applied for.
A will can bridge the gap in one direction and leave property to an unregistered child. It does not create parenthood, and it is no substitute for the arrangement itself.
Succession Law, 5725-1965, section 10 · Adoption of Children Law, 5741-1981. Checked in September 2026.
In summary
In summary, same-sex partners are not without standing in inheritance law, but that standing does not follow directly from the written statute. Section 55 speaks of a man and a woman, the courts extended it in line with its purpose, and the extension is examined afresh in every case. Registration adds evidence, pension and insurance beneficiaries operate on a separate track, and the parental arrangement determines the position of the children.
This picture is complicated not because it is controversial, but because it is scattered. The Succession Law, the pension fund rules, the beneficiary form, the parentage order and the will are written by different bodies and do not speak to one another. A lawyer reviews all five together and finds the contradiction while it can still be corrected.
Contact us for a consultation, and we will go through the documents you already have and those you are missing, so that the legal picture matches the family reality you actually live in.
What people ask us about inheritance between same-sex partners
Does a same-sex partner inherit without a will?
Does marrying abroad solve the problem?
What exactly does section 55 say?
Which judgment recognised the inheritance right?
What evidence helps prove a common household?
What happens to pension and life insurance money?
Do the children inherit from both parents?
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