Author: PLA.partners Law Firm
The average wait for an entry of a family foundation in the register today reaches around 14 months, and without staff reinforcement at the regional court in Piotrkow Trybunalski, which is the only institution keeping that register, this time may grow to two years. The register’s statistics show that this is not a drop in interest, but a procedural bottleneck. Experts at PLA.partners explain what the numbers mean for founders.
How many family foundations are in the register today
At the end of March 2026, the register contained 3413 family foundations against 6778 applications submitted, which means less than half were entered. By the end of April 2026, the combined number of registered foundations and foundations in the formation stage exceeded 7 thousand. In 2025 the courts entered 1170 foundations compared to 1545 in 2024, despite 2743 new applications submitted in 2025. The entry success rate, that is the share of applications ending in registration, oscillates around 50 to 67 percent in successive years.
Why the waiting time for an entry is getting longer
The drop in the number of entries does not result from lower interest, but from at least a doubling of the registration procedure. The rate of entries is around 120 per month, while the inflow of applications exceeds 200. The structural limitation remains the fact that the family foundation register is kept by only one regional court, in paper form. Partial digitalisation of the register enters into force on 29 July 2026, and the Ministry of Justice is working on moving family foundations to the KRS, which would distribute cases across nearly thirty commercial divisions throughout the country.
What a founder can do while waiting for registration
The time between the founding act and the entry in the register is not dead time. A family foundation in the formation stage already has legal capacity and may undertake some actions. Maciej Pilarek, advocate and partner at PLA.partners, indicates that for the founder it is crucial to define precisely the scope of actions undertaken during the formation stage, the path of their approval after registration, and the permissible amendments to the statute that can still be introduced before registration. The practice of the PLA.partners team shows that proper work on the structure during the waiting period reduces the risk of disputes with authorities and creditors after registration.
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