How to withdraw money from a bank in Poland inherited from a deceased person from Poland?

How to withdraw money from a bank in Poland inherited from a deceased person from Poland?

According to Polish law, upon the death of a Polish citizen, their estate passes to the heirs. Heirs may be people living in Poland or outside of Poland, for example in France, the USA, Canada, or New Zealand. In order for the heirs to take possession of the estate, and most importantly to withdraw money from a bank account in Poland that belonged to a relative from Poland, appropriate legal steps must be taken.
What should the heir do to obtain the money?

Below I present the steps that a person entitled to funds accumulated in a bank account in Poland must take:

after receiving information about the death of a relative from Poland, it is necessary to initiate inheritance proceedings before a court in Poland. Such proceedings can be initiated by any of the heirs. The lack of willingness of some heirs to start such a case does not block it. It is enough for one of the heirs to submit an appropriate application to the court competent for the last place of residence of the relative from Poland. Such an application may be submitted by a Polish lawyer,
the court hearing before the inheritance court in Poland is held online, and it is not required for the heirs to come to the court building,
the inheritance court will issue a certificate of inheritance, which is one of the main documents required to withdraw money from a bank account in Poland,
in addition to the certificate of inheritance, the bank in Poland requires the death certificate of the deceased, and if the deceased died, for example, in the USA, it is necessary to translate the death certificate into Polish and obtain a special apostille clause on this document,
another document necessary to withdraw money in Poland is the birth certificates (or marriage certificates) of the persons indicated as heirs in the content of the certificate of inheritance issued by the court,
finally, the bank in Poland, before paying out the funds, must see the original or notarized copies of identity documents (passports),
the bank will send the heir documentation to complete,
the last step is to indicate the bank account to which the funds paid out by the bank in Poland are to be transferred.
In order for the funds to be paid out by the bank in Poland, all heirs indicated in the certificate of inheritance must go to the bank at the same time, therefore it is worth considering that actions on behalf of the heir are undertaken by a lawyer who, based on a power of attorney, will sign the appropriate bank forms and indicate the client number for the payment of funds.
Would you like to use the help of a lawyer? Contact me.

dr Joanna Suslo, Attorney-at-law
E-mail: [email protected]
Mobile WhatsApp 24/7: + 48 668 841 990
Inheritance in Poland

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