Does a child conceived before a parent’s death but born afterwards inherit in Israel?

The Succession Law works from a single cut-off point. Section 3(a) provides that whoever was alive at the time of the death inherits, and Section 3(b) stretches that moment backwards for a child still in the womb by treating any child born within 300 days of the death as having been alive on the day the parent died. Section 1 of the Capacity and Guardianship Law 5722-1962 supplies the other half of the rule, granting legal personality from the completion of birth, so a stillborn child never becomes an heir and the notional share passes to the remaining heirs.

For a widow or a diaspora family expecting a child, timing drives everything. The Registrar of Inheritance Affairs will normally hold the file open until a birth certificate is produced, because an order issued without the newborn allocates shares to the wrong people. Where an order has already issued, Section 72 permits it to be amended once the new fact emerges, and heirs who took too much must give the difference back. A newborn heir cannot sign anything either, so the share is handled under the rules protecting minor heirs, and selling the child’s real property needs Family Court approval.

From the full guide: Intestate Succession in Israel: Who Inherits Without a Will

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