Every Israeli pension account you own shows up in three free government portals: Gemel Net (gemelnet.mof.gov.il) for pension and provident funds, Har HaKesef (itur.mof.gov.il) for financial accounts and dormant bank money, and Har HaBituach (harb.cma.gov.il) for insurance policies. A full personal file from the Pension Clearing House (Mislaka Pensionit) costs about ₪20. Four government-selected default funds, Altshuler Shaham, Meitav, Infinity, and Mor, cap fees at 1% of deposits plus 0.22% of balance until about 2031, against statutory caps of 6% and 0.5%. Switching funds is a legal right: no penalty, no waiting period, no tax. At retirement your balance is divided by the annuity coefficient (mekadem kitzba), about 200 at age 67, so ₪1,000,000 buys roughly ₪5,000 a month. Bituach Leumi pensions rose 2.4% with CPI in January 2026 (₪1,838 for a single person); private fund payouts track investment returns, not prices.
An Israeli career leaves a paper trail: a keren pensia from your first employer, a bituach menahalim policy an agent sold you in 1998, a kupat gemel you stopped noticing a decade ago. Research covered by EurekAlert in 2024 found most Israelis never check their pension status at all, which means fees drift, insurance lapses, and old accounts simply vanish from memory. This page shows you how to find every account, judge it, fix it, and understand what it will actually pay. It sits inside our full guide to pensions, taxes, and financial planning for retirees in Israel, which in turn is part of the complete guide to retiring in Israel.
Find every account you own in one evening
Tracking pension accounts in Israel no longer requires phone calls or filing cabinets. Three government portals plus one free private service surface everything registered to your teudat zehut number. The Har portals log you in through the National Identification System, which asks for two of three documents: Israeli ID card, Israeli passport, or an Israeli credit card.
| Where to look | What it shows | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Gemel Net (gemelnet.mof.gov.il) | Every pension fund, provident fund, and keren hishtalmut on your ID, with fees and historical returns for comparing managers | Free |
| Har HaKesef (itur.mof.gov.il) | Financial accounts: pensions, provident funds, life-insurance savings, dormant bank accounts in shekels or foreign currency | Free |
| Har HaBituach (harb.cma.gov.il) | Every insurance policy from every Israeli insurer: life, health, personal accident, homeowners, with premiums and coverage periods | Free |
| Wobi (pension.wobi.co.il) | Balances, management fees, and fee projections through retirement, pulled from the clearing house; results within three business days | Free |
Since February 1, 2025, employers must file monthly electronic contribution reports to your fund, so the data in these portals is current, not last year’s snapshot.
What the Pension Clearing House actually is
The Pension Clearing House (Mislaka Pensionit) is the government-tendered digital pipe that moves standardized data and policies between every Israeli fund manager. It is what makes a fund transfer take days instead of months, and it is the raw source Wobi reads from. You can order your own personal clearing house report for about ₪20: one file listing every pension product any institution holds in your name. It is the cheapest full financial checkup in the country.
Lost accounts: where old pension money hides
Lost pension accounts pile up in three predictable ways: contributions stop at a job change and the account goes quiet, your contact details change and statements stop arriving, or a pre-digital policy from the 1980s or 1990s was never consolidated. Fund managers are legally obligated to try to locate dormant-account holders, but in practice the search falls on you. Run Har HaKesef and Har HaBituach every few years; Har HaKesef also searches on behalf of deceased relatives, which makes it the first stop in any estate. For truly abandoned property where no owner or heir is known, the Guardian General’s Office (Apotropos HaKlali) runs a separate registry.
Our estimate of what a found account is worth: at a typical annuity coefficient of 200, every ₪100,000 you recover converts to about ₪500 a month for life, roughly ₪120,000 over a 20-year retirement. An afternoon on two free portals is the best-paid work most retirees will ever do. One limit to know: these portals cover Israeli institutions only. Money in American or British accounts never appears here; that search is covered in our guide to U.S., UK, and international accounts for Israeli residents.
Choosing a fund: two questions matter more than the brand
Choosing a pension fund starts with the vehicle, and for almost everyone the answer is the comprehensive pension fund. Israel has three savings instruments:
| Vehicle | What it is | Insurance included | Statutory fee cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keren Pensia Makifa (comprehensive pension fund) | The dominant vehicle for employees since the 2008 mandatory pension order | Yes: disability and survivors’ cover built in | 6% per deposit, 0.5% of balance per year |
| Kupat Gemel (provident fund) | Pure savings, often used for lump sums and Tikun 190 planning | No | 4% per deposit, 1.05% of balance per year |
| Bituach Menahalim (managers’ insurance) | Older insurance-based policy, common before 2008; new enrollment restricted | Varies by policy | 4% per deposit, 1.05% of balance per year |
Then pick the investment track. Every fund must offer an age-based lifecycle default: higher equity under 50, more government bonds from 50, and a bond allocation that can reach 60% or more of the portfolio from age 60. Most funds also offer general, stock-heavy, conservative, passive index, halakhic, and short-term shekel tracks, and you can split across tracks and change tracks any time without penalty. A workable self-directed rule: hold (120 minus your age) percent in equities, so about 60% at age 60. Two structural advantages sit underneath all of this: designated government bonds guaranteed at 5.15% above CPI cushion part of the portfolio (10% for under-50s, rising to 30% to 60% with age), and the system performs: the OECD ranked Israel’s pension real return at 10.1% in 2024, among the highest of any member country. How the money gets in, at 6% employee, 6.5% employer, and 8.33% severance (18.5% of gross pay), is covered in our guide to how Israeli pension funds, contributions, and payouts work.
Fees decide your pension more than fund selection does
Pension fund fees come in two parts, a deposit fee skimmed off every contribution and an annual fee on your whole balance, plus a separately capped investment expense of up to 0.25%. Over a career, paying the statutory maximum instead of a competitive rate cuts final savings by 23% in a keren pensia and up to 37% in a gemel or bituach menahalim. Here is the scale to judge your own statement by:
| Verdict | Deposit fee | Annual balance fee |
|---|---|---|
| Good | Below 1% | Below 0.2% |
| Default fund rate | 1.00% | 0.22% |
| Passable | 1% to 2% | 0.2% to 0.45% |
| Switch now | Above 2% | Above 0.45% |
Our estimate of the fee gap in shekels: a worker contributing ₪2,000 a month for 30 years at a 4% real return ends with about ₪1,307,000 at default-fund fees (1% and 0.22%) but about ₪1,244,000 at 2% and 0.45%. That ₪63,000 gap is ₪314 a month for life at a coefficient of 200. At the full statutory cap of 6% and 0.5%, the pot falls to about ₪1,183,000: ₪618 a month less, forever. And fees bite standing still too: our estimate is that on an ₪800,000 balance, the 0.23-point difference between a 0.45% and a 0.22% balance fee costs ₪1,840 every single year.
The four default funds are a fee floor anyone can claim
The default pension funds (kranot brirat mechdal) are four providers selected by the Capital Market Authority in a September 2021 tender: Altshuler Shaham, Meitav, Infinity, and Mor. Their fees are locked at 1.00% per deposit and 0.22% of balance per year for roughly a decade, until about 2031. Workers whose employer never enrolled them anywhere are assigned to one by rotation, but that is not the interesting part. The interesting part is that any worker can join a default fund proactively, and your employer is legally obligated to deposit contributions into the fund you name. If your current fees fail the table above and you do not want to negotiate, the default funds are the ready-made answer.
Switching funds is free, tax-free, and mostly paperwork
Switching pension funds (maavar keren) is a legal right with no waiting period and no penalty. Your accumulated balance, contribution history, and disability and survivors’ seniority all move to the new fund, and the transfer triggers no capital gains tax. At a job change your account stays yours; it never resets or follows the new employer without your instruction.
Switch when the numbers say so: fees above the 1% and 0.22% default benchmark without performance that has beaten the sector average by at least 5 percentage points over 5 years, or persistent underperformance against peers in the same track over 5 cumulative years. Do not switch over one bad quarter, an agent’s pitch, or employer pressure (steering you has been illegal since the 2008 mandatory pension order). One real hazard: if contributions lapse for more than a few weeks between jobs, the disability and survivors’ insurance inside your keren pensia lapses with them. Request a risk-only continuation policy (hesder rishmi) for the gap. For decisions near retirement age or with medical underwriting in play, use a licensed pension advisor, a yoetz pensioni, who by law is paid independently of the funds.
The annuity coefficient: the divisor that turns a pile into a paycheck
The annuity coefficient (mekadem kitzba) is the number your fund divides your total balance by to set your monthly pension for life. The formula is one line: monthly pension = accumulated savings ÷ mekadem kitzba. A typical coefficient for a man retiring at 67 is about 200, so ₪1,000,000 becomes ₪5,000 a month gross. The coefficient is set actuarially from life expectancy and an assumed real interest rate of about 4%: retire younger and it rises (smaller pension), retire later and it falls (larger pension), and women’s coefficients run higher because they live longer. Your fund prints your exact coefficient on your annual statement; read it before any retirement decision.
Two rules connect the coefficient to real life in 2026. First, you may only take remaining savings as a lump sum once you are already receiving a lifetime annuity of at least ₪5,422 a month (rising to ₪5,893 in January 2027 and ₪6,318 in January 2028). Second, 57.5% of a qualifying pension is income-tax-exempt in 2026, up to ₪5,422 a month; how that exemption, Form 161D, and the rest of the tax mechanics work is the subject of our guide to pension tax and retirement tax forms in Israel.
Will your pension keep up with prices?
Inflation indexing of pensions in Israel depends entirely on which pension you mean:
- Bituach Leumi old-age pensions are CPI-indexed every January. The 2026 update added 2.4%, taking the basic rate to ₪1,838 for an individual, ₪1,941 at 80 plus, and ₪2,762 for a couple. Disability benefits are wage-linked instead and rose 3.4%.
- Private fund payouts are not CPI-linked. A new-generation pension adjusts with the portfolio’s investment returns through a three-year smoothing mechanism, so the monthly amount can drift up or down year to year.
- The designated-bond layer is the inflation shield. The government bonds inside your fund pay a guaranteed 5.15% above CPI on their allocated share, which is largest exactly when you are oldest.
- Budget pensions (old public-sector defined-benefit plans) are linked to CPI or wages, but they are closed to new entrants.
If part of your income is a foreign pension, indexation follows the source country’s rules and Israeli tax follows the oleh clock: the 10-year exemption on foreign income for new olim covers it in full, though anyone becoming resident from January 1, 2026 must report it from year one. What Israel does with American, British, and other overseas pensions after that is mapped in our guide to foreign pension income in Israel.
Five terms, one line each
- Mekadem kitzba: the annuity coefficient; savings divided by it equals your monthly pension for life.
- Mislaka Pensionit: the national pension clearing house through which all fund data and transfers flow.
- Keren pensia makifa: a comprehensive pension fund bundling retirement savings with disability and survivors’ insurance.
- Kranot brirat mechdal: the four government-selected default funds with fees capped at 1% and 0.22%.
- Yoetz pensioni: a licensed pension advisor paid independently of the funds he or she recommends.
Before you sign anything, confirm four things
- Your current fees, from the annual statement or Gemel Net, measured against the 1% and 0.22% default benchmark.
- Your insurance continuity: a transfer or job gap must not leave a single uncovered week of disability and survivors’ cover.
- Your fund’s actual annuity coefficient for your birth year, from the statement, not the marketing page.
- Your named beneficiaries on every account the portals surfaced, especially the forgotten ones.
Quick answers retirees actually ask
How do I find all my pension accounts in Israel?
Log in to Gemel Net, Har HaKesef, and Har HaBituach with two of three identifiers (ID card, Israeli passport, Israeli credit card). All three are free, and together they list every pension, provident, insurance, and dormant bank account on your ID.
Does switching pension funds cost anything or trigger tax?
No. Transfers carry no penalty, no waiting period, and no capital gains tax, and your balance and insurance seniority move with you.
What management fees should I be paying in 2026?
At or below the default-fund rate: 1% per deposit and 0.22% of balance per year. Above 2% and 0.45% is a switch-now signal.
How much monthly pension does ₪1,000,000 buy?
About ₪5,000 a month gross at age 67, using a typical annuity coefficient of 200.
Are Israeli pensions protected against inflation?
Bituach Leumi pensions are, via annual CPI indexation (2.4% in 2026). Private fund payouts adjust with investment returns instead, cushioned by designated bonds paying 5.15% above CPI.
Check the numbers yourself
- Gemel Net (gemelnet.mof.gov.il): fund balances, fees, and manager performance comparison.
- Har HaKesef (itur.mof.gov.il) and Har HaBituach (harb.cma.gov.il): the Capital Market Authority’s account and policy locators.
- Capital Market, Insurance and Savings Authority (gov.il): fee caps and the default fund roster.
- Bituach Leumi (btl.gov.il): 2026 old-age pension rates and indexation.
- OECD Pension Markets in Focus: Israel’s 2024 real-return ranking.
Figures last verified July 2026 against Capital Market Authority and Bituach Leumi publications. Fee caps and rates update each January.
One next step
Run the three portals this week and write down two numbers: your total balance and your projected monthly pension at your fund’s coefficient. Most Israeli retirees discover the pension covers the floor and property carries the rest, which is why the follow-on question is usually an apartment that pays rent, laid out in our guide to property and wealth planning for retirees in Israel. Tell us the monthly number your pension will pay and we will show you property that covers the gap.
