Amendments to the Polish Inheritance Act 2023 and the persons entitled to inherit by law in Poland

Amendments to the Polish Inheritance Act 2023 and the persons entitled to inherit by law in Poland

The revision of Polish inheritance law in 2023 also concerns the circle of persons entitled to inherit in Poland on the basis of the law – i.e. in the absence of a will or where the will has proved invalid.

The circles of heirs in Poland are as follows:

– Inheritance group I in Poland – spouse and children; designated to inherit first.
– Inheritance group II in Poland – spouse and parents, siblings or children of siblings; designated in the absence of descendants of the testator
– Inheritance group III in Poland – the testator’s grandparents and their children (uncles and aunts of the testator); designated in the absence of the testator’s parents, children or spouse.
– Inheritance Group IV in Poland – the grandchildren of the testator’s grandparents (the testator’s cousins); where there are no grandparents or children of the testator’s grandparents.

A change in Polish inheritance law has meant that legal succession ends, as it were, with the grandchildren of the grandparents, i.e. the cousins, and not with the cousins’ subsequent descendants. This will speed up legal proceedings, which are prolonged by the search for distant relatives who have often not even had the opportunity to meet the testator.

The new rules apply to estates opened after November 15, 2023.