Our mission is to support the Polish community in the United States, represent Polish companies and corporations in international transactions within the USA, and serve American clients operating in Poland.
Our goal is to provide them with support in understanding local regulations and requirements. We place particular emphasis on legal services in Polish, which enables efficient communication and understanding of the needs of clients from Poland.
When does intestate succession occur?
Intestate succession occurs when the deceased did not leave a will, or when persons designated to inherit do not wish to or cannot be heirs (died before the opening of the estate).
What takes precedence – a will or the law?
According to the current law of the State of New York, the will of the deceased will take precedence. If the deceased left a valid will, inheritance will occur based on that document. Only in its absence do the provisions of the law come into play.
Who has the right to inherit when there is no will?
- spouse and children – the wife/husband receives the first $50,000 and half of the remaining estate, and the children receive the rest
- spouse, and no children – the spouse receives everything
- children, but no spouse – the children receive everything
- parent or parents, no spouse or children – the parents receive everything,
- sisters and brothers – in equal parts.
- descendants of grandparents – i.e., siblings of parents, half on the mother’s side and half on the father’s side,
- children and grandchildren – living children in equal parts, and grandchildren, if the children are deceased, equally inherit the share of the deceased parent.
Do spouses have the right to inherit from each other during divorce proceedings, but before a final divorce decree is issued?
New York case law does not provide a clear answer to the question of whether a surviving spouse is entitled by law to inherit from a deceased spouse during the period from the filing of a divorce case but before a final divorce decree is issued. Rather, the law seems to indicate that the outcome of the case will vary based on different factual circumstances. Nevertheless, one thing is certain – from the moment a final divorce decree is issued, one spouse can only designate the other spouse to inherit based on a will.
When do children have the right to inherit?
All children of the deceased have equal rights. For the possibility of intestate succession by the deceased’s children, the fact of marital or non-marital origin of the children is irrelevant. In the case of non-marital children, the method of establishing paternity, i.e., whether it was a judicial determination of paternity or recognition of the child by the father, does not affect inheritance.
In the case of adoption, an adopted child inherits from the adoptive parent and their relatives as if they were their child, while the adoptive parent and their relatives inherit from the adopted child as if the adoptive parent were the adopted child’s parent.
How do the deceased’s children and grandchildren inherit?
When the deceased did not leave a spouse, but their children are still alive, the deceased’s children are entitled to the entire estate. This occurs when the deceased was not married at the time of death or a court ordered separation, when the marriage was annulled after their death, or the spouse was excluded from inheritance, then only the deceased’s children inherit by law. The children’s inheritance shares are equal. If one of the children died, their share in the estate goes to their children, i.e., the deceased’s grandchildren. If the deceased’s children died before their death, but the grandchildren are still alive, they inherit shares in the estate equally in the same generation and not the shares in the estate that would have fallen to their parents. This is a different solution than in Polish law and is criticized as very unfair, because if the deceased had two children and one of them had one child and the other had four, and only grandchildren remained, each of them would inherit 1/5, and not 1/2 and 1/8 as would be the case in Polish law.
When do parents inherit?
In the event that the deceased did not leave descendants or a spouse, the deceased’s parents are called to inherit. The share of the deceased’s parents is 1/2 of the estate each. If one of the parents did not survive the opening of the estate, the surviving parent inherits everything.
When do siblings inherit?
The provision indicates that if neither of the deceased’s parents survived the opening of the estate, the inheritance share that would have fallen to them goes to the deceased’s siblings in equal parts.
If the siblings did not survive the opening of the estate, their children inherit shares in the estate equally in the same generation and not the shares in the estate that would have fallen to their parents.
Siblings therefore inherit exclusively in the absence of either of the deceased’s parents.
When does the deceased’s spouse inherit the entire estate?
If the deceased had no children, or had children but these persons died before their death and left no descendants, or these descendants also died before the opening of the estate, and the deceased was in a valid marriage, then the entire estate goes to the deceased’s spouse.
When do the deceased’s grandparents inherit?
In the absence of descendants, spouse, parents, siblings, and descendants of siblings of the deceased, the entire estate goes to the deceased’s grandparents, ½ on the mother’s side and ½ on the father’s side. If any of the deceased’s grandparents did not survive the opening of the estate, the share goes to their descendants equally in the same generation and only up to the great-grandchildren’s generation.
Please remember that a will always takes precedence over statutory provisions.
