POLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Piotr Augustyniak, Nash Concept Ltd
dence may be given effect in Poland through private international law, but reliance on this should be tested with the institutions concerned in advance. 8.4 Elder Law Provision for longevity is organised through the pen - sion system and private accumulation rather than through insurance: Poland has no mandatory long- term care insurance, and the cost of care falls on fami - lies, supplemented by means-tested social assistance and a modest universal benefit for dependent elderly persons. Retirement saving is encouraged through employee capital plans with automatic enrolment and employer matching, and through individual retirement accounts offering exemption of investment income or deductibility of contributions within annual limits. Two civil-law instruments are characteristic of Pol - ish elder planning. The contract of annuity against transfer of real estate ( dożywocie ) conveys a dwell - ing in exchange for lifetime maintenance and care, is secured by encumbrance of the property and, per settled case law, does not trigger income tax for the transferor; it remains the traditional intra-family mech - anism. The statutory reverse mortgage, by contrast, has found almost no market since its introduction. In wealthier families, the family foundation increasingly performs the elder-care function in reverse, the statute securing lifetime benefits for the founder and spouse ahead of the younger generation’s entitlements. 9. Planning for Non-Traditional Families 9.1 Children Children born out of wedlock are fully equal to children born in marriage for all purposes of inheritance and transfer taxation, once parentage is established by presumption, acknowledgement or judicial determina - tion. Full adoption places the adopted child entirely within the adoptive family, with inheritance rights and zero-group tax treatment identical to those of a bio - logical child and corresponding severance from the family of origin. Surrogacy is not regulated and surrogacy agreements are unenforceable as contrary to public policy: the woman who gives birth is the legal mother without
exception, and intended parents can acquire par - entage only through the ordinary routes of paternity acknowledgement and adoption. Foreign surrogacy arrangements generate well-known difficulties in the transcription of birth certificates. Posthumously conceived children have no succession rights: only a child conceived before the opening of the succes - sion inherits, and only if born alive. Accordingly, pro - vision for a child conceived after death can, if at all, be made only through lifetime arrangements such as beneficiary designations in a family foundation, whose statute may include after-born and after-conceived descendants as a class. 9.2 Same-Sex Marriage Poland recognises neither same-sex marriage nor any registered partnership, and marriages validly contract - ed abroad are not transcribed. The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly found this state of affairs to be incompatible with the Convention, and the leg - islature attempted to address it: an act creating the status of “closest person” and a notarial cohabitation agreement was passed by the Sejm on 29 May 2026, only to be vetoed by the President on 17 July 2026. The legal position at the time of writing is therefore unchanged, and no change should be assumed for planning purposes in the current political configuration. The consequences of this lack of legal recognition are severe and must be planned around. A same-sex part - ner has no intestate rights, is exposed to the zachowek claims of the deceased partner’s family, and stands in tax group III, paying 12% to 20% above an allowance of only PLN5,733 on anything received by will or gift. The preferred mechanisms are, accordingly: • a will (accepting and budgeting for the tax and the zachowek exposure); • the vindicatory legacy for the shared home; • life insurance, whose proceeds pass to the desig - nated partner outside the estate and free of both income and transfer tax, making it the single most efficient instrument available; • co-ownership acquired for consideration; • reciprocal notarial powers of attorney and medical authorisations; and • where the estate justifies it, a family foundation naming the partner as beneficiary, with the tax
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