The Act of January 26 on a family foundation, which entered into force on May 22, 2023, in addition to introducing a new institution of law into the Polish legal system – a family foundation, also made changes to the institution of renunciation of inheritance under Art. 1048 CC The article has been modified by adding two paragraphs:
§ 2. Waiver of inheritance may be limited to waiving only the right to a reserved share in whole or in part.
§ 3. Waiver of inheritance in favor of another person shall be deemed to be a waiver in case of doubt, provided that that person will inherit.”
However, the current article has been left in its current wording and marked as the first paragraph:
㤠1. The statutory heir may, by agreement with the future testator, renounce his inheritance. Such an agreement should be concluded in the form of a notarial deed.
The second paragraph allows for the possibility of limiting the waiver to the right of reserved share in whole or in part, which means confirmation of the current position of the doctrine and jurisprudence (cf. Ciszewski Jerzy (ed.), Nazaruk Piotr (ed.), Civil Code, Wolters Kluwers 2023).
In the third paragraph, the possibility of renouncing inheritance is allowed, provided that it is in favor of another person. Such a reservation does not result in direct inheritance, but depends on whether certain persons actually succeed to the inheritance. The current wording of the article is also confirmed by the current position of the doctrine and jurisprudence. (cf. Fras Mariusz (ed.), Habdas Magdalena (ed.), Civil Code. Commentary. Volume VI. Inheritance (art. 922-1087), WKP 2019)