{"id":4814,"date":"2025-08-20T08:44:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T06:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/djp-a9vm.1wp.site\/?p=4814"},"modified":"2026-10-19T19:05:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T17:05:00","slug":"can-you-waive-the-right-to-inherit-from-someone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/en\/can-you-waive-the-right-to-inherit-from-someone\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you waive the right to inherit from someone?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can someone effectively waive inheritance from another person?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Family and property relations in succession can be complicated and conflict-prone. Future heirs and testators seek legal solutions protecting their wishes. A will is the most obvious instrument, but cannot fulfil every wish. For example, both may agree that the heir should never inherit. Achieving this through a will would require express disinheritance based on a statutory ground generally involving misconduct and conflict. A will stating untrue grounds could be challenged.<\/p>\n

A less widely known solution is a contractual waiver of inheritance.<\/p>\n

A contractual waiver<\/h2>\n

Agreements concerning a living person\u2019s estate are generally prohibited. The sole exception is an inheritance waiver agreement, under which a potential heir renounces the future inheritance otherwise due. It concerns only intestate succession and does not affect inheritance under a will if the testator subsequently chooses to leave assets to that person.<\/p>\n

In principle, any testator and statutory heir may contract, whether or not that heir would actually inherit at signing, for example because heirs in an earlier group are still alive. The agreement may therefore be made with selected children, a spouse or more remote heirs such as parents or grandchildren.<\/p>\n

A municipality and the State Treasury cannot waive inheritance because they are last-resort statutory heirs where no others exist. For a minor, a statutory representative may contract with guardianship court consent, as the act exceeds ordinary management.<\/p>\n

Form<\/h2>\n

Probably because of its significance, the agreement must be a notarial deed. The parties should visit a notary. They may act through representatives, but the power of attorney must also be notarised.<\/p>\n

What can be waived?<\/h2>\n

The parties have considerable freedom. All rights arising from intestate succession may be waived, excluding the heir entirely, including any reserved-share claim.<\/p>\n

Most commentators also permit waiver of a fractional part of the estate or inheritance share. Waiver of specific future assets is ineffective. An heir may waive one-fifth of their statutory inheritance, but not specifically a property or art collection.<\/p>\n

Since the May 2023 amendment, waiver may unquestionably cover only the reserved share, wholly or partly. The waiving person is excluded when determining the inheritance share used to calculate it. Most commentators consider the waiver does not affect other heirs: it neither increases their reserved shares nor creates new entitlements. In practice, the testator gains greater freedom over the estate by releasing part from reserved-share claims<\/strong>, reducing the burden of those debts.<\/p>\n

The parties may thus agree that the testator transfers particular assets during life while they sign a waiver, settling succession matters between them.<\/p>\n

This freedom can be particularly important in multigenerational succession planning. Reserved-share claims may require rapid payment, substantially disturbing heirs\u2019 liquidity and, in practice, the estate\u2019s finances. In extreme cases, their amount and family disputes may force sale of inherited assets or company shares, or even closure of the testator\u2019s business, contrary to their wishes. Proper planning matters, and a waiver can be a useful tool.<\/p>\n

Duration<\/h2>\n

The agreement remains effective until both parties mutually terminate it. Neither can end it unilaterally.<\/p>\n

Some commentators allow conditions, provided they are resolved by the opening of succession. These may be suspensive, for example effectiveness only if the potential heir becomes a statutory heir through marriage, or resolutive, for example cancellation and treatment as never made if someone other than a descendant, such as a spouse, is appointed heir.<\/p>\n

Effects on third parties<\/h2>\n

Unless otherwise agreed, the waiver also affects the waiving person\u2019s descendants. A parent wishing to protect children from inheriting an indebted grandparent\u2019s estate can achieve this by contracting with the future testator; the children need take no further action. This is a key difference from rejecting an inheritance after death, which does not affect the rejecting heir\u2019s successors: they must reject separately.<\/p>\n

The agreement also matters to the waiving person\u2019s creditors. Although a debtor-heir\u2019s waiver may hypothetically reduce assets, creditors cannot challenge it by actio pauliana, seeking ineffectiveness because it prejudices them. Waiving a hypothetical potential benefit is not considered creditor prejudice.<\/p>\n

This is another distinction from rejecting an existing inheritance, which concerns a concrete estate value. If rejection prejudices the heir\u2019s creditors, they may seek ineffectiveness under creditor-protection rules for debtor insolvency.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

A contractual inheritance waiver is a little-known but effective tool for excluding a statutory heir from inheritance or solely reserved-share claims. It is the only exception to the prohibition on contractual dispositions on death. Substantial freedom in drafting allows adaptation to the parties\u2019 needs and can materially reduce family property disputes after death. It also gives the waiving heir greater certainty about their own and their successors\u2019 financial position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can someone effectively waive inheritance from another person?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":2937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"294","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"iawp_total_views":0,"_djp_featured_image_mode":"full","footnotes":""},"categories":[{"term_id":294,"name":"Articles","slug":"articles-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":294,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":100,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":294,"category_count":100,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Articles","category_nicename":"articles-en","category_parent":0},{"term_id":293,"name":"Corporate, M&A","slug":"corporate-ma-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":293,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":49,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":293,"category_count":49,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Corporate, M&A","category_nicename":"corporate-ma-en","category_parent":0},{"term_id":291,"name":"General","slug":"general-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":291,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":153,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":291,"category_count":153,"category_description":"","cat_name":"General","category_nicename":"general-en","category_parent":0}],"tags":[],"djp_center":[],"coauthors":[239],"class_list":["post-4814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-en","category-corporate-ma-en","category-general-en"],"acf":{"djp_promote_now":false,"djp_promotion_days":7},"images":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Projekt-bez-nazwy-6-1-150x150.png","medium":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Projekt-bez-nazwy-6-1-300x198.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Projekt-bez-nazwy-6-1-768x507-djp-web.webp","large":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Projekt-bez-nazwy-6-1-1024x676-djp-web.webp","full":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Projekt-bez-nazwy-6-1-djp-web.webp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4814"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5462,"href":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4814\/revisions\/5462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4814"},{"taxonomy":"djp_center","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/djp_center?post=4814"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djp.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}