Inheritance & Probate Lawyers in Poland

Selected experience

• More than 80 first assessments since January 2023 – the most frequent inheritance matter in our files, and the start of most of the proceedings we run
• A daughter in England of a soldier of the Polish Armed Forces under British command who died in England in 1988: nobody knew what land he still held in his home village; a will witnessed in London in 1974 was opened and accepted as formally valid, her three-quarter share confirmed by the Polish court, the family land traced through enquiries to the court and a bailiff’s inventory, and the tax case closed with no tax due because the plots had been held in possession rather than ownership (2021–2023)

Selected experience

• A Canadian heir who had never lived in Poland: family accounts suggested a half-sister nobody could locate, and the court appointed a curator for her; our searches of the population register and of court records going back to 1980 showed that no such child existed, and the court declared our client sole heir to a Wrocław flat (2026)
• An heir in Australia: three successions – grandmother, grandfather and mother, whose will placed her estate in a trust with our client as trustee and sole beneficiary – confirmed by the Warsaw courts in two sets of proceedings, with the argument that a trustee-beneficiary stands as heir under Polish law accepted (2023–2025)
• A dual US–Polish citizen in Iowa who lost both parents within four months: both successions confirmed in a single set of proceedings in Łódź, tax exemption certificates for both sisters, and the family house sold under her power of attorney with her share paid to her US bank (2024–2026)

Selected experience

• The Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Company, sole estate trustee of an Ontario estate of over CAD 2.5 million: as its Polish counsel we verified the two residuary beneficiaries living in Poland and answered a beneficiary’s formal challenge to the accounts – described in the case studies below
• A Geneva law firm appointed by the Justice of the Peace to administer, for an absent heir, a Swiss estate of over CHF 1 million: we represented the administrator in the parallel Warsaw succession case, obtained access to the court file and used it to locate the missing half-brother in Poland; once he was confirmed alive in 2025, the Polish court set aside its earlier order and the Swiss certificate of inheritance could be issued for three heirs
• A Danish law firm acting as curator of a Danish estate: the deceased had inherited half of his father’s Polish estate but died before the Polish order became final; we built a plan that keeps the Danish estate as the contracting party in Poland – so that the heirs do not take Polish assets before the estate is handed over to them, which Danish law and Danish tax would not allow – and joined the Warsaw proceedings in 2026
• A London law firm whose partner acts as Court of Protection deputy for a Polish citizen with a settlement of over GBP 3 million: a memorandum, prepared with our tax adviser, on the Polish inheritance-tax position of close family, on why no valid will can be made while the client remains incapacitated, and on the planned Polish reform of incapacitation (2025)
• A Florida trust company, instructed through a Florida law office, as trustee and personal representative of a US estate with beneficiaries in Poland and Germany: we confirmed the deaths of three named beneficiaries from civil records, located and served the two surviving beneficiaries and obtained their notarial identity declarations, IRS forms and waivers of accounting, so that the trustee could distribute without further proceedings (closed 2025)
• A Melbourne law firm acting for the executor of an Australian will leaving cash bequests to seven relatives in Poland: we located the legatees, verified their identity and bank accounts through notarised statements we drafted, dealt with the heirs of a legatee who had died and paid the bequests through our escrow account – without the executor travelling to Poland (2023–2024)
• A Washington State estate administrator of a Polish-born RAF veteran whose heirs had been traced by genealogists to Belarus: we contacted the heirs in English and Russian and set out the civil-status, notarial and translation evidence each had to provide to prove kinship (2025)
• A Danish court-appointed administrator of the estate of a Danish businessman who held shares in three Polish property companies: powers of attorney from the widow and daughters and sworn translations of the Russian death certificate, the Danish will and the probate certificates so that the Polish succession can be completed (2026)
• The Public Trustee of Western Australia, as executor of a Polish-born testator, after a Polish bank refused to disclose or release two accounts she had held jointly with her late husband and demanded a foreign-law opinion on the Public Trustee’s statutory authority: the apostilled Australian grants and powers of attorney, the analysis of whether a Polish succession ruling is needed, and the claim to the bank (2026)

Selected experience

• The sole heir of a Polish citizen who died in England leaving a Warsaw flat, a house in Sweden and UK accounts: a European Certificate of Succession from the Warsaw court, which accepted subsidiary jurisdiction and applied the English renvoi to Polish and Swedish law for the immovables, followed by the Polish tax return and the land-register application – working with the English probate team (2024–2025)
• A widow in New Hampshire whose late husband’s parents applied to prove a handwritten will leaving his share of a Polish property to them: we showed that New Hampshire law refers immovables back to Polish law, under which the will was a mere legacy, and the court confirmed statutory succession and the widow’s half (2025)
• A family in New Zealand and Germany whose father died in Poland leaving an industrial site in Germany and plots in France: a bilingual European Certificate of Succession from the Polish court listing every asset abroad (2025)
• An unrelated heir in Szczecin named in the handwritten will of a Belgian national: a European Certificate obtained with a Brussels notary under Belgian law, the Polish tax return with our fees accepted as a deductible estate debt, and the Belgian return credited with the Polish tax (2025–2026)
• A widow in the Netherlands whose Polish-born husband had chosen Dutch law: the Dutch statutory division applied in Poland on the strength of the Dutch certificate, with the land-register application and the spouse’s tax exemption filed within the six-month period (2026)

Selected experience

• A US widow and her son: PESEL numbers obtained for both, and the Illinois intestacy rules applied inside a Polish probate case so that a vindication legacy left to the late husband passed half to the widow and a sixth to each child (2025–2026)
• Two Canadian sisters inheriting their mother’s share of a Łódź tenement: the Ontario will opened and proved in Poland on the basis that Ontario law refers real estate to the law of the place where it lies, the daughters’ title confirmed in 2026 and the inheritance tax settled with our fees accepted as deductible

Selected experience

• An heir in the Netherlands whose mother died in Poland: before the deadline we checked the debtor registers, every bailiff in the district, the land register, the register of wills and the court, and found no liability; when a bank filed almost two years later, we applied within a month to set aside the effects of the missed deadline for error, filed her rejection before the Polish consul and showed that banking secrecy had made the debt impossible to discover in time (2025–2026)
• Two daughters in London drawn into Polish proceedings started by a bank to recover their late father’s debt: their rejection, with an alternative declaration avoiding the effects of the missed deadline, had the bank’s first case discontinued and, when the bank refiled, the second as well – leaving them outside the estate and its debts (2021–2026)
• An heir in Illinois named in proceedings in which two debt funds and a municipality took part as creditors: an apostilled US declaration of rejection, the argument that US law has no equivalent procedure, a remote hearing with an interpreter – and her removal from the proceedings (2026)
• Grandchildren in the United States, Norway and Poland of an Austrian testator: renunciations of a later Polish estate filed for the client and then for his three children, with the six-month deadline preserved by a notice of intent filed in time (2022)

Selected experience

• Two brothers in Michigan who inherited farmland in southern Poland from a father who died in the United States in 1988: a family acquaintance claimed the land under a 1987 letter and the city had paid expropriation compensation into court because title was unclear; we showed that the letter was a promise of a gift, not a will, defended an adverse-possession claim, had each brother’s half confirmed and applied for release of the deposit (2017–2021)
• A daughter in California and her stepfather: a US will admitted to probate in San Diego and a Polish handwritten will leaving a flat in Pszczyna to the daughter, read together; the daughter declared sole heir to the Polish estate, entered in the land register, the tax exemption claimed and the balances of her mother’s Polish account recovered (2024–2025)
• A Polish heir of a Connecticut estate of over USD 150,000: the US administrator issued a cheque that Polish banks cannot clear and two wire transfers failed; we intervened with the US law firm, proposed a verified transfer or payment through our escrow account and planned her Polish tax filing so that the close-family exemption is preserved (2026)

Selected experience

• Three heirs in Norway holding minority shares in a historic building in Warsaw, co-owned with the city and with French heirs: tax clearance and planning certificates, a due-diligence process for interested buyers and the sale of the combined share for approximately PLN 700,000, with the price held in a notarial deposit, wired to Norway, and the buyer taking over all arrears and claims between co-owners (2025)
• Three heirs in England of a 96 m² apartment in central Warsaw: two old mortgages deleted from the land register, the sale negotiated and signed by us under apostilled powers of attorney for over PLN 1.5 million – the clients never travelled to Poland (2017–2020)
• A son in San Diego whose father died in New York leaving a flat, road plots and bank funds in Poland: after the court set the shares, a full division of the estate and of the marital property negotiated with the widow – she kept the flat and paid our client out – followed by the land-register and tax filings (2025–2026)
• A Polish citizen in England holding half shares in town plots and farmland: a bilingual power of attorney signed before a London notary, tax office certificates that the inheritance tax was time-barred, and one notarial deed ending the co-ownership in her sister’s favour against a payment and gifting the farmland to the sister free of gift tax (2025)

Selected experience

• A Norwegian heir of a quarter of a rural estate with a historic manor farm, farmland in four municipalities and a flat in Łódź: the inheritance tax return and its correction, the agricultural and forestry tax arrears owed by tenants calculated and demanded, and a bailiff’s inventory that valued the assets at over PLN 9 million and limited her liability for the estate’s debts (2024–2026)
• Four heirs in Illinois and Wisconsin of family land in the Beskidy mountains that passed through four relatives who died in the United States between 1984 and 2018: after a single succession case, the heirs’ tax returns filed with the estate debts, including our fees, accepted as deductions (2024–2025)
• Two children in Florida of a Warsaw-born testator: one qualified for the close-family exemption through her EU citizenship; for the other, who could not obtain a PESEL remotely under the 2026 rules, the return was filed using his Florida driving licence as the tax identifier (2026)

Selected experience

• An 87-year-old Polish citizen in Toronto with primary and secondary Ontario wills, land near Warsaw and shares in Warsaw flats: a Polish will limited to the Polish estate that expressly preserves both Ontario wills, chooses Polish law, leaves the Polish assets to her five children, appoints an executor and disinherits her husband on documented grounds (2026)
• A British-Polish dual national in England who had made an English will setting up a trust and, a year later, a Polish notarial will choosing Polish law for his Polish house: the Polish will proved before the Polish court, the two wills shown to be consistent, the children’s title confirmed in 2026 while the English estate went through probate
• A professor in Melbourne with Polish and Australian citizenship: a Polish will limited to her share in a Warsaw flat and her Polish funds, with a choice of Polish law and a multi-level substitution of heirs, aligned with her Melbourne solicitors before signing (2023)

Selected experience

• A Polish family: eight assets screened and two agricultural plots kept out of the foundation to avoid the agricultural agency’s consent and pre-emption right, a five-year ban on disposal and a planning levy; the founding deed and statute signed in 2024, a Warsaw flat, a garage share, a family house and a building plot contributed to a founding fund of over PLN 1.5 million with no transfer or gift tax, and the foundation registered in 2025
• A family foundation near Szczecin with assets of over PLN 140 million: after registration, its first annual cycle – approval of the financial statements, discharge of the president, register filings – and an application for the refund of withholding tax deducted from stock-exchange dividends, on the basis that the foundation’s exemption applies by statute (2025–2026)
• A Canadian citizen living in Warsaw: a Polish family foundation designed for his family’s wealth and its succession, the paperwork required of a foreign founder, the tax and statistical registrations and the court’s requests for documents – registered in 2026
• A trustee and sole beneficiary of his late mother’s Australian trust: treated as heir in the Polish succession proceedings over the family’s Warsaw flat, with the full inheritance-tax exemption secured (2023–2025)

Selected experience

• Five heirs in England of a chain of Polish estates beginning with their grandmother, who died in 1982: the validity of her 1976 handwritten will tested before the Polish court with a court-appointed handwriting expert, the follow-on successions handled, and advice on claiming their forced share from the testamentary heirs – a claim that passes on to the heirs of the person liable (2022–2024)
• Three siblings in Britain sued by their late father’s sister for over PLN 300,000 for his care and her outlays on the Warsaw flat they had inherited: the defence built on limitation, the father’s own income and his unpaid child maintenance, and the claim steered towards a settlement for a fraction of the amount, with no admission of liability (2024–2026)