Can a person under guardianship in Israel make a valid will?

Section 26 of the Succession Law 5725-1965 lists three categories of testator whose will is void: a minor, a person declared legally incompetent, and a person who at the time of signing did not know the nature of a will. Only the second category depends on a formal court declaration. Amendment 18 to the Legal Capacity and Guardianship Law 5722-1962, passed in 2016, pushed Israeli courts toward tailored guardianship and supported decision-making, so most modern orders appoint a guardian for defined matters without stripping legal capacity. The Family Court therefore reads the actual order and the medical file rather than assuming incapacity from the existence of guardianship.

Families abroad usually discover the guardianship file only after the death, when a relative in Israel applies for probate. Ask the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs and the Administrator General for a copy of the order, because its exact wording decides whether Section 26 applies at all. Where the order stops short of a declaration of incompetence, an objection has to rest on evidence: a physician’s capacity assessment dated close to the signing, the drafting lawyer’s contemporaneous notes, and testimony about the testator’s behavior that week. Israeli courts regularly uphold wills signed by people with a dementia diagnosis where the signing itself was lucid and properly documented, so a diagnosis alone rarely wins a will contest.

From the full guide: Contesting a Will in Israel: Grounds, Process and Realistic Outcomes

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