What can be financed from the Family Foundation's assets?

A family foundation is an entity whose primary goal is to manage the founder's assets and support their loved ones and achieve specific goals. The foundation's accumulated assets can be used in a strictly defined manner, in accordance with the Family Foundations Act and the foundation's statute. What expenses can be financed from the family foundation's assets?

Benefits for beneficiaries

The primary purpose of a family foundation is to provide financial support to beneficiaries indicated by the founder. These may be family members or other persons indicated in the statute, including the founder. Benefits may take various forms, such as:

• Regular cash payments (pensions, scholarships),
• Covering education costs,
• Coverage of medical expenses
• Covering housing costs or other living needs,
• One-off financial support for specific purposes.

Development of the foundation's assets

A family foundation may, and this is one of the main purposes of establishing a foundation, allocate funds for investments that are intended to preserve and increase assets. These may be:

• Real estate purchases,
• Purchases of shares or stocks in companies,
• Purchase of securities,
• Modernization and renovation of real estate belonging to the foundation,

Implementation of statutory objectives

If the statute of a family foundation provides for philanthropic or social activities, the foundation may support charitable organizations, educational or cultural institutions. The possibility of allocating these funds for broadly understood pro-social activities must be supported by the provisions of the statute.

Administrative costs

It should also be remembered that maintaining a family foundation involves incurring costs, including the costs of managing assets. The foundation is required to incur the current costs of its operations, including:

• Employee salaries,
• Remuneration of management board members,
• Utility fees,
• Court and notary fees,
• Accounting, legal and advisory services.

The assets of a family foundation may be used to cover a wide range of expenses, but their purpose and justification should be assessed taking into account the purposes for which the foundation was established and justifying its existence.

PMR team

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