The decision stays yours.
Durable power of attorney in Israel — drafting, advance instructions, and deposit with the Administrator General
A durable power of attorney is how an adult decides, in advance, who will run their affairs if a day comes when they no longer can. It also sets out exactly what that person may do. We draft it in the language of real estate as well: what may be done with the apartment, on what terms, and what happens when the building enters urban renewal.
You can only sign it while you don't need it.
The statute makes capacity a precondition: only an adult who can understand the meaning of the document, its purposes and its consequences may grant a durable power of attorney. This is a document healthy people sign, long before anyone needs it.
You choose the person
An adult who has capacity appoints one agent or several, and may also name a substitute agent who steps in if the first appointment lapses. You make that choice on your own schedule, out of a knowledge of the people involved that nobody else has.
Your instructions bind your agent
Advance instructions are part of the document. You spell out now what you want done later — and when the moment comes, your agent must act under that instruction, not with whatever seems sensible at the time.
A deposited document comes first
A court will not appoint a guardian for an adult where a durable power of attorney covering those same matters has been deposited with the Administrator General, except in the situations the Legal Capacity and Guardianship Law spells out.
Your legal capacity stays intact
The statute says it outright: the entry into force of a durable power of attorney does not, in itself, deprive a person of legal capacity. You remain who you are, even when someone is helping you run your affairs.
Your family isn't left guessing
You name an informed person in the document, and your agent keeps them updated on decisions and actions. Where no instruction covers the question, the statute sets a binding order of priority: your wishes first, your best interest only after that.
Three worlds, one document.
The statute separates a person's personal affairs from their property affairs, and lets you grant authority over one, the other, or both. You can also name a different person for each. Medical matters are a world of their own, with their own signing rules.
Personal affairs
Where you live, how you live, and the routine that holds it together. The statute defines these as matters touching a person's personal welfare, daily needs, place of residence, health, and physical, mental or social affairs — and expressly not property.
- Staying home with a caregiver instead of moving to an assisted-living facility
- Swimming every day
- Synagogue and the club, on the same schedule as always
- The children and grandchildren visiting every Sunday
- A haircut every two weeks
- Vegan food, or a particular kashrut standard
Financial affairs
Bank accounts, investments, and assets. Your agent can take some of these steps only if you granted that authority expressly in the document. Gifts, donations and loans are capped at the figure named in the power of attorney, and may not exceed NIS 100,000 in the aggregate. Anything past that needs court approval.
- A gift for every grandchild who marries
- Continuing support you have given for years
- Investments managed at the risk level you set
- Anything touching a pension product — only with express authority
Medical affairs
Who treats you, on what medication, and where. A medical power of attorney can be signed before a physician, social worker, psychologist or licensed nurse, not only before a lawyer. If it is never deposited with the Administrator General, it is valid for one year and no longer. End-of-life positions belong in a separate instrument under the Dying Patient Law, 5766-2005, because an agent under the Legal Capacity Law has no authority to act there.
- The physician who knows you keeps treating you
- Long-standing medication stays as it is
- A preferred hospital
- Who receives your medical information, and who does not
When there's an apartment, the document reads like a deal.
Most durable powers of attorney give property a single general sentence. With us it's a chapter. The statute puts every act into one of three groups: acts your agent may take alone, acts that require express authority written into the document, and acts that require prior court approval. Almost everything touching an apartment sits in the last two, and that is where the work starts.
Selling the apartment — what the statute requires, what you decide
Transferring an apartment, and any real estate transaction, are outside your agent's authority without prior court approval. The identical limit applies to a court-appointed guardian. Your document decides the substance: whether to sell at all, under what circumstances, in what order, and what happens to the proceeds. That instruction binds your agent, and it is the instruction the court sees.
Mortgaging and paying for care
Placing a lien on an apartment, and assigning or charging a right to receive a right in land, likewise require prior approval. But the real decision gets made long before that, in your advance instructions: what funds the care, what is preserved, and how the assets rank. Written down ahead of time, it is not a question anyone has to answer under pressure.
Leasing and day-to-day management
Here the statute leaves a door open: a lease of up to five years, not governed by the Tenant Protection Law, is carved out of the list of acts needing approval. In practice the apartment can stay rented and managed, and the document sets the terms, the tenant profile, and what happens to the rent.
When the building enters urban renewal
Signing with a developer is an undertaking to carry out a real estate transaction, which places it on the list requiring prior approval. The document carries your position: whether to join, what your threshold conditions are, and who receives information from the owners' committee and the owners' counsel along the way. That keeps your apartment represented in the project, even once its owner is no longer handling it personally.
Durable power of attorney vs. court-appointed guardianship.
These are not two versions of the same thing. One is written by the person while they have capacity; the other is set by a court after they no longer do. The differences below are written into the statute, side by side — including the last row, where the two routes meet.
| The question | Durable power of attorney | Court-appointed guardian |
|---|---|---|
| Who chooses | You do. An adult with capacity names one agent or more, plus a substitute. | The court appoints, at its discretion. |
| When it is settled | In advance, while you understand the document, its purposes and its consequences. | After the fact, once a person cannot manage their affairs and no one is authorized and willing to do it for them. |
| Does starting it require a court | No. A power of attorney granted under the statute needs no further approval. It does need to be deposited with the Administrator General. | Yes. A proceeding and a court decision. |
| Who writes the substance | You do, through advance instructions that bind your agent. | The court defines the matters handed to the guardian, and narrows them as far as possible. |
| What happens to legal capacity | It stays. Entry into force does not, in itself, deprive a person of legal capacity. | Appointment is a restriction, so the statute permits it only where the purpose cannot be achieved by a less restrictive route. |
| How the two interact | A deposited power of attorney comes first. A court will not appoint a guardian over those same matters, except in the situations the statute lists. | Appointment remains open where nothing was deposited, or where those listed situations apply. |
| Revoking and changing | You give written notice to your agent, and revocation takes effect when the notice is delivered. | Changing the scope, replacing or removing a guardian goes through the court. |
| Oversight and reporting | Whatever you set: an informed person of your choosing, and the option to require reporting to the Administrator General. | An inventory within thirty days of appointment, and annual accounts and reports to the Administrator General. |
| Who gets to see the document | The statute lists exactly who may receive information about the deposit and a copy of the instrument. | The matter is handled in court, and the circle is set within the proceeding. |
| A transaction in the apartment | Requires prior court approval — on the basis of the instruction you wrote in advance. | Requires prior court approval. |
From the first meeting to the deposit confirmation
A durable power of attorney is made in writing on a form prescribed by regulation, and signed before a lawyer who has completed the dedicated training for drafting durable powers of attorney and has no personal interest in the document. Those are the formal requirements. The substance gets decided in conversation.
- 01
First meeting, with your agent out of the room
Before you sign, the statute requires your lawyer to walk you through six specific things — among them the alternatives the law offers, what may be written into the document, which acts need express authority and which need court approval. That explanation is given to you without your agent present.
- 02
What you actually want
A conversation about routine, health, money, and property. This is also where it gets established that the document is given freely and willingly, without pressure and without undue influence. You confirm it by your signature, and your lawyer certifies that they satisfied themselves it is so.
- 03
Who, over what, and who gets told
One agent or several, split between personal and property matters, alongside a substitute agent and an informed person who receives updates on decisions and actions. An informed person cannot be a relative of your agent unless they are a relative of yours.
- 04
Writing the advance instructions
The stage where the document stops being a form. This is where the instructions that will bind your agent get written. With us it is also where the assets come in: the apartment, the lease, the urban renewal project.
- 05
Meeting your agents, then signing
Each agent signs a consent to serve, before a lawyer, after having the meaning of the appointment, their responsibility and their powers explained to them. Only then is the document itself signed.
- 06
Deposit with the Administrator General
An original is delivered either by you or by the lawyer before whom it was signed. Deposit is a precondition to the power of attorney taking effect, and the Administrator General confirms it in writing.
The power of attorney doesn't stand alone.
Six documents that talk to each other. Each answers a different question, and each has its own signing rules. That is why they get drafted at one table, rather than one at a time, years apart.
Durable power of attorney
The full instrument: personal affairs, property affairs or both, with advance instructions, an informed person, and deposit with the Administrator General.
Medical durable power of attorney
Medical matters only. It can be signed before a physician, social worker, psychologist or licensed nurse as well as before a lawyer. If it is never deposited, it is good for one year.
Will
What happens afterward, while the power of attorney governs what happens before. An agent has no authority to make a will on your behalf, so the two are drafted together and checked against each other, particularly where the same apartment is involved. The will itself is made in one of the forms the Inheritance Law, 5725-1965, prescribes.
Statement of wishes
A parent or relative of a minor, and a guardian of an adult, use it to name who should be appointed guardian if they themselves become unable to care for that person. Made in writing and signed before a lawyer.
Directive under the Dying Patient Law
Your position on end-of-life treatment. A separate, purpose-built document, because an agent under the Legal Capacity Law has no authority over matters the Dying Patient Law, 5766-2005, governs.
Consent to psychiatric hospitalization
This enters the power of attorney only through express authority, and carries its own rules: consent that holds even against your objection at the time requires that the document also be signed before a psychiatrist, and it covers hospitalization of no more than 48 hours, under the Treatment of Mentally Ill Patients Law, 5751-1991.
What people ask us before they sign
When does it take effect, and who decides the moment has come?
Not on the day you sign. Under the Legal Capacity and Guardianship Law, a durable power of attorney takes effect at the point you cease to be able to understand the matters it covers, and only after your agent files a declaration with the Administrator General that the conditions are met and the notice obligations were carried out. The Administrator General then confirms to the agent that the instrument is in force, and sends notice to you and to your informed person. The document itself can set out how that moment is established, through an expert opinion, for instance.
I signed. Do I lose control of the apartment and the bank account today?
No. Until it takes effect the document simply sits there with no operative force. And once it does, the statute is explicit: the entry into force of a durable power of attorney does not, in itself, deprive a person of legal capacity. At any time while you have capacity you may revoke it by written notice to your agent, and revocation takes effect when that notice is delivered.
Will my agent be able to sell my apartment?
Not on their own. Transferring an apartment, and any real estate transaction, are outside their authority without prior court approval. The same limit applies, word for word, to a court-appointed guardian. The difference between the two routes is what gets put in front of the court: in a durable power of attorney you write an advance instruction setting whether to sell, when, and on what terms, and your agent must act under it. One thing does stay open without approval: a lease of up to five years not governed by the Tenant Protection Law.
Can it be changed or revoked after signing?
Yes, for as long as you have capacity. Revocation is by written notice to your agent and takes effect on delivery, and you also notify the Administrator General. And you are not left to remember it on your own: while the instrument has not yet taken effect, every three years from the date of deposit the Administrator General sends you a notice to confirm you still want it in place and to remind you of your right to revoke.
Who actually keeps an eye on the agent?
Three layers. The first is the informed person you name in the document: your agent updates them on decisions and actions, and they may demand information. An informed person cannot be a relative of your agent unless they are a relative of yours. The second is yours to choose — you may require your agent to report to the Administrator General. The third is in the statute: an agent must keep records of material decisions and of the actions they took, and the Administrator General operates a dedicated complaints mechanism.
I already have a will. Why do I also need this?
Because they work at different times. A will takes over after death; a durable power of attorney works during life, from the point a person can no longer understand the matter. They also don't overlap: an agent has no authority to make a will on your behalf. So the two get drafted together and kept in step — especially when both touch the same apartment, and especially when that apartment sits inside an urban renewal project.
A conversation with a real estate lawyer, wherever you are in the process.
An apartment you're buying or selling, a building entering renewal, or a contract waiting on a decision. Leave a name and a number and a senior lawyer on the team will call you back: we hear you out and tell you what the next step is — even when it isn't with us.