Buying Property as a Gay Couple in Panama: Title Structure, Legal Documents, and What Marriage Doesn’t Protect Here

We are writing this article as a gay couple actively planning a property purchase in Panama. We are married — legally, in the United States — and that marriage means nothing in Panama for property or inheritance purposes. Not for us, not for any same-sex couple. Panama’s Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that there is no right to same-sex marriage in Panama, and the ruling explicitly confirmed that same-sex marriages performed abroad, including in the US, will not be recognised. The practical consequences are well documented: gay and lesbian couples in Panama face the risk of being denied the right to make medical decisions for a partner, to have a partner covered under health benefits, to inherit from a partner who dies without a valid will, and to own property with the protections marriage provides elsewhere. This article is about what you do about that — what decisions to make, what documents to execute, and what legal structures to use to create the protections Panama’s law doesn’t provide automatically.

Buying Property in Panama: The Complete Expat Guide

Ten articles covering everything from the rent-vs.-buy decision through closing day and beyond — including the specific issues that affect gay couples that most guides completely ignore.

1. What to Think About Before You Think About Properties
2. What Are You Actually Buying? Titled Property, ROP, Concessions Explained
3. Finding a Real Estate Agent — and How to Tell If They're Working for You
4. What Sellers Don't Have to Tell You: Flooding, Zoning & Hazards
5. The Promise to Purchase: What to Negotiate Before You're Committed
6. Due Diligence: Title, HOA Health & the Inspection Nobody Does
7. Closing: Costs, Taxes, the Public Registry & What Happens on Day One
8. Corporate vs. Personal Ownership: When a Panama Corporation or Foundation Makes Sense
9. Managing Property from Abroad: Rentals, Property Managers & the 45-Day Rule
10. Buying Property as a Gay Couple: Title Structure, Legal Documents & What Marriage Doesn't Protect Here You are here

The Legal Reality: What Panama Does and Doesn’t Recognize

Panama’s legal position on same-sex relationships has been settled at the highest court level. The Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling confirmed the constitutional conformity of provisions in the Family Code and private international law limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples, and rejected recognition of same-sex marriages performed abroad. A couple married in New York, California, Canada, Spain, or anywhere else does not have a recognised marriage in Panama. For legal purposes, the relationship does not exist there.

For property ownership specifically, three consequences follow.

No spousal inheritance rights. Under Panama’s Civil Code intestacy rules, if a person dies without a will, a surviving spouse inherits alongside children, or alongside parents where there are no children. A same-sex partner is not a spouse under Panamanian law. If one partner dies without a valid Panamanian will and the property is in that partner’s name alone, the surviving partner has no automatic legal claim. The property goes to the deceased partner’s legal heirs — children, then parents, then siblings — regardless of how long the relationship lasted or what the couple intended.

No automatic joint ownership protections. In a recognised marriage, property acquired during the marriage may be subject to community property or participation-in-gains rules that protect both spouses. No such automatic protection applies to a same-sex couple. Each partner’s property is entirely theirs — which also means entirely at risk if they die without appropriate documents in place.

No next-of-kin medical decision rights. Not a property issue as such, but the same gap in a different domain. In a medical emergency, a hospital may not recognise a same-sex partner’s authority to decide for an incapacitated partner without explicit documentation. We cover the documents below.

What Happens Without Planning: The Default Scenarios

To understand why planning matters, it helps to see what actually happens in specific situations without it.

Property in one partner’s name, no will

This is the highest-risk scenario, and it plays out more often than it should — usually because the couple never had the planning conversation before closing. Partner A buys a property, puts it in their name alone, and dies without a Panamanian will. Partner B has no legal claim. Under intestacy, the property passes to Partner A’s children, then parents, then siblings. Partner B may have no legal right to the home they shared, and may find Partner A’s family as co-owners or outright owners.

Property in both names jointly, no will

Better, but still incomplete. If Partner A dies, their share passes under intestacy to their legal heirs — not automatically to Partner B. Depending on the family situation, Partner B may end up co-owning with Partner A’s relatives. Manageable, but rarely what the couple intended. A will directing Partner A’s share to Partner B solves this; without one, the surviving partner does not inherit that share.

Property in an entity with no succession planning

If an S.A. holds the property and both partners are shareholders, Partner A’s shares pass under their estate — again to legal heirs under intestacy, or per a will. If Partner A dies without a will or without corporate documents specifying share succession, half the company passes to legal heirs. The property doesn’t move, but control of the entity does — and with it, effective control of the property. A foundation whose regulations name no subsequent beneficiary has an analogous gap.

The Four Tools That Create the Protections You Need

The good news — and we say this without minimising the unfairness of the situation — is that Panama’s legal tools can create protections that functionally approximate what marriage provides elsewhere. They require deliberate effort and professional guidance. They are not automatic. But they work, and they are what experienced Panamanian attorneys use for same-sex couples who want their arrangements to reflect their actual intentions.

Tool 1: The Panamanian will

A Panamanian will is the most direct instrument for ensuring property passes to your partner. Panamanian law gives a testator substantial freedom to dispose of assets, and a will executed before a notary is valid regardless of where the testator is domiciled. You can leave your Panama estate to your partner.

The critical limitation is that a will does not avoid probate — it is the set of instructions the probate court follows. Probate in Panama takes months, requires attorney involvement, and involves public notification of heirs. For the surviving partner that means delay in formalising the transfer, at exactly the moment they are least equipped to manage a court process. The will also becomes part of the public court record once filed.

Despite those limitations, a valid Panamanian will executed by each partner naming the other is the minimum protection every gay couple should have. The absence of a will is always worse than its presence.

Tool 2: The S.A. corporation with engineered share succession

An S.A. holding the property can be structured so the surviving partner gains control of the corporation on the other’s death, without probate. Both partners hold shares, and the corporate documents or a separate shareholder agreement specify that on the death of one shareholder the other acquires their shares.

The mechanism must be explicitly documented — it does not happen automatically because both partners are shareholders. Drafted properly, the result is that the surviving partner presents the corporate documentation, takes control of the corporation, and with it the property, without waiting on a probate proceeding. Note that Panama’s beneficial owner registry regime now requires disclosure of who actually controls a company to the supervisory authority, so corporate ownership provides relative privacy in the public registry rather than anonymity.

Tool 3: The private interest foundation

This is the tool we would draw your attention to most, and the one the earlier version of this article wrongly told you was unavailable if a Qualified Investor Visa was involved.

A private interest foundation holding the property can be structured with succession provisions reflecting the couple’s actual intentions: one partner as primary beneficiary, the other named as subsequent beneficiary in the foundation’s regulations. Because the foundation continues to exist after a founder’s death, its assets do not enter the estate in the conventional sense, and the surviving partner — as beneficiary and potentially as a council member — can continue managing the property without court involvement. Panamanian foundations are also insulated from forced heirship rules, so the couple’s intentions govern rather than an intestacy order.

The structural point that matters for same-sex couples: this arrangement does not require Panama to recognise your relationship. It operates through the foundation’s own governing documents. That is precisely why it is the strongest succession tool available to a couple whose relationship Panamanian law does not acknowledge.

The tradeoff, covered in Part 8, is that foundations cannot directly conduct commercial activity — so if rental income is part of the plan, a separate S.A. may be needed alongside the foundation.

Tool 4: The durable power of attorney

A durable power of attorney addresses the non-property gap: medical decisions, financial management during incapacity, and administrative authority when one partner cannot act. Under Panamanian law a power of attorney is extinguished on the grantor’s death, so it is a tool for incapacity, not inheritance. But incapacity is a real risk, and without a POA naming their partner, a gay couple in Panama has no mechanism for one partner to make medical or financial decisions for the other.

Each partner should execute a durable POA naming the other for medical decisions, property administration, banking, and legal matters — drafted by your Panamanian attorney and notarised, with authenticated copies accessible to both of you.

Title Structure Options: The Decision Matrix

Given that Panama does not recognise the relationship, a couple has four basic title structures available for a shared property. Each has different implications for succession, visa eligibility, and day-to-day ownership.

The Qualified Investor Visa: What It Actually Requires

This is the point where a couple’s estate planning and one partner’s visa application intersect, and it is worth being precise, because the rules are more accommodating than the programme’s early reputation suggested.

Executive Decree 193 of 15 October 2024, which amended the decree creating the programme, permits the qualifying real estate investment to be held personally, through a Panamanian corporation, or through a Panamanian private interest foundation — provided the applicant maintains beneficial ownership of the qualifying value. The decree also expressly contemplates co-ownership arrangements between spouses or dependents.

For a same-sex couple, two things follow. The first is genuinely good news: the foundation route is not disqualifying. A foundation can hold the qualifying property with the visa applicant as the beneficiary satisfying the beneficial-ownership requirement, while the regulations name the partner as a subsequent beneficiary. Succession planning and visa eligibility are compatible, not in conflict — which means you are not forced to choose between the visa and protecting your partner through the strongest available mechanism.

The second is the open question. The co-ownership provision refers to spouses, and Panama does not recognise same-sex marriage for immigration purposes. Whether that route is available to a couple whose marriage Panama does not recognise is something we have not been able to resolve from published sources, and it is not a question a website should answer for you. Put it to your immigration attorney directly.

The Documents Every Gay Couple Needs

Property is not the only domain where the absence of recognition creates risk. These should be executed alongside the property planning, not treated as separate.

• Panamanian will (each partner). Naming the other as primary beneficiary for Panama assets. Even with an entity structure in place, a will covers assets outside it and clarifies intent if anything is disputed.
• Durable power of attorney (each partner). Naming the other for medical decisions, financial management, property administration, banking, and legal matters during incapacity.
• Healthcare directive. Explicitly naming your partner as authorised to make medical decisions, including about life-sustaining treatment. Without it, a Panamanian hospital may defer to blood family over your partner.
• Beneficiary designations on bank accounts. Ask whether your Panamanian bank permits them, and complete them if so.
• Accessible copies. Carry copies of your partner’s POA and healthcare directive where you can both reach them — not in a safe only the incapacitated person can open.

Working With an Attorney Who Understands the Situation

The instruments involved — wills, POAs, corporations, foundations — are standard Panamanian legal tools. What requires experience is their specific application to same-sex couples, the interaction between visa requirements and title structure, and the judgment about which combination fits a particular couple.

When you engage an attorney, ask directly: have you advised same-sex couples on property ownership and estate planning in Panama? What structures do you typically recommend? What happens to the property if one of us dies without a will? That last question will tell you quickly whether they understand the issue.

Our immigration attorney, Carolina Tejada Vaprio at Morgan & Morgan, handles our visa matters. For property and estate planning, an attorney with specific real estate and estate planning experience is the right person — the same firm or a different specialist, depending on what you need.

Our Situation, Honestly

We have not yet purchased property in Panama. What follows is what we have concluded we need to do, not a report of steps already taken.

Kent intends to apply under the Qualified Investor Visa using proceeds from our Florida sale. What we have confirmed with Carolina: the $300,000 minimum for the real estate route. What we have verified from the decree: that the qualifying property may be held personally, through a corporation, or through a foundation, provided Kent remains the beneficial owner.

That verification changed our thinking. An earlier version of this article said the qualifying property would have to be in Kent’s name alone, and that Brian’s protection would come from a will and the probate process that follows it. Reading the decree properly, the foundation route is open — Kent as beneficiary satisfying the visa’s beneficial-ownership requirement, Brian named as subsequent beneficiary in the regulations, succession handled without probate and without depending on Panama recognising our marriage. That is a materially better answer than a will alone, and we are pursuing it with our attorney rather than defaulting to the simpler structure.

What remains unresolved is whether the decree’s spousal co-ownership provision reaches us at all. We will report Carolina’s answer when we have it rather than guess at it here. We will also execute wills, durable powers of attorney, and healthcare directives regardless of what structure we land on — those are the floor, not the ceiling.

Why This Matters Beyond Panama

We write for a primarily gay male audience considering Panama, and about Panama specifically. But the underlying point applies to any same-sex couple considering property in a country that does not recognise their relationship — and there are many. The default legal framework in most of those countries is built around a family structure that excludes us. The planning required to work within it is not exotic. It is deliberate, it needs professional guidance, and it needs to happen before you close rather than after.

Panama is a genuinely welcoming place for gay expats in day-to-day life. The legal framework lags well behind the social reality. That gap is navigable — and, as the foundation route shows, sometimes more navigable than the guidance you’ll find online suggests. This series has tried to give you what you need to navigate it.