Brazilian Lawyers for Foreign Individuals & Families

Who This Page Is For

We represent three kinds of clients: foreign heirs and beneficiaries of estates with assets in Brazil; foreign individuals and families who buy, own, or sell Brazilian property or hold other Brazilian interests; and families relocating to or from Brazil or Portugal. We also work alongside the professionals who serve them. If your situation is in Brazil and your life is somewhere else, this is the work we do every day.

This page is also written for the attorneys, family offices, fiduciaries, and private banks who need a dependable Brazil-side team for a client matter. And it is written for clients with ordinary, serious matters: you do not need a complex estate or a large portfolio to engage us. You need a real legal matter in Brazil and a willingness to approach it properly.

When Do You Need a Lawyer in Brazil?

You need Brazilian counsel whenever a matter must be resolved before Brazilian courts, notaries (cartórios), banks, or public registries. Only attorneys admitted to the Brazilian Bar may practice law in Brazil, and Brazilian authorities will not act on foreign documents until they are properly legalized, translated, and presented under Brazilian procedure.

• Almost everything can be done remotely, if it is set up correctly. A power of attorney lets a Brazilian attorney act for you before courts, cartórios, and banks. Done right, you may never need to board a plane. Done wrong, a single defective document can stall a matter for months.

Cross-border layers add complexity that purely domestic Brazilian counsel rarely handles: apostilles and sworn translations, currency controls and the lawful remittance of funds abroad, foreign tax reporting that your home-country advisors must coordinate, and the practical problem of supervising work in a country you cannot visit and a language you may not speak.

How Oliveira Lawyers Helps

We organize our work for individuals and families into the workstreams below. Each links to a detailed page. If your matter spans several of them, as cross-border matters usually do, one team coordinates the whole engagement.

Around these workstreams we maintain the supporting capabilities cross-border matters require: escrow, international money transfer support, powers of attorney drafted for use in Brazil, and Brazilian tax filings connected to your matter. Everything between the death certificate and the wire to your bank, under one engagement.

Common Scenarios We Are Engaged For

These are typical engagement patterns, described generally. Every matter differs, and nothing here is a promise of any outcome.

• Siblings abroad inherit a Brazilian apartment. Heirs in two or three countries, an estate consisting of real property and a bank account, and no one able to travel. We verify the estate, open the appropriate probate path, handle ITCMD, sell or transfer the property as the heirs decide, and remit each share lawfully abroad.
• A surviving spouse discovers assets in Brazil. The deceased held accounts or property the family knew little about. We run asset and records searches, establish the estate’s true scope, and administer it alongside the foreign probate.
• A foreign heir is asked to sign a power of attorney. Relatives in Brazil send a procuração prepared by their own lawyer and ask for a quick signature. We review it independently, explain in plain English what each clause authorizes, and where appropriate prepare a narrower instrument. We represent only you.
• A family buys a vacation or retirement property. Before money moves, we conduct due diligence on the property, the seller, and the developer, structure the purchase, and manage closing and registration, with funds protected through escrow where appropriate.
• A foreign owner plans their Brazilian estate. A client with Brazilian property and heirs abroad wants their plan to actually work in Brazil. We prepare Brazil-side planning that respects forced heirship and coordinates with the client’s home-country estate attorney.
• A divorce or judgment needs effect in Brazil. A foreign divorce, custody order, or money judgment must be recognized before Brazilian authorities will act on it. We manage the recognition proceeding and the follow-through at registries and banks.
• A U.S. law firm needs a Brazil leg executed. An estate attorney, trustee, or family office is administering a matter with Brazilian assets. We scope the Brazil-side issues, execute them, and report on the foreign firm’s cadence, without disturbing the client relationship.

What Makes These Matters Complex

None of this work is exotic for a properly equipped Brazilian team. The complexity is in the combination: civil-law procedure plus common-law expectations, two or more tax systems, documents that must survive notarization, apostille, and sworn translation, and money that must cross borders through regulated channels. A misstep in any one layer ripples through the others. An estate cannot close because one heir’s document was notarized incorrectly; a property transfer waits because the buyer’s funds entered Brazil through the wrong channel; a will drafted abroad is silent on the one issue Brazilian law decides differently.

This is why serious cross-border matters are best handled by counsel that works in both legal cultures. Our attorneys are admitted in Brazil, and our managing partner is also admitted in Texas and California, so the firm understands both what Brazilian procedure demands and what foreign clients, courts, and advisors expect to see. We will not dramatize the risks; most matters resolve in an orderly way. But order is the product of preparation, and preparation is what you are hiring.

How an Engagement Works

1. Conflict check and intake

   You describe your matter through our contact form, including the names of the parties involved so we can confirm we are free to act for you.

2. Consultation and preliminary scoping

   A paid video consultation with an attorney, in English, at a time that works in your time zone. We assess the matter, outline the realistic paths, and identify what is known and unknown. The consultation fee is credited toward our services if you engage the firm.

3. Scope and fee proposal

   We send a written scope and cost estimate by email, so you can evaluate it calmly and share it with family members or advisors. We quote in writing only; no fee estimates are given over the phone.

4. Engagement, power of attorney, and documents

   Once engaged, we prepare the power of attorney and the document checklist: certificates, apostilles, sworn translations. You sign locally in your country; we handle the Brazilian side.

5. Brazil-side execution

   Our team conducts the proceeding before the competent court, notary, registry, or bank, manages taxes and filings, and resolves the practical obstacles that arise in any Brazilian proceeding.

6. Reporting and completion

   You receive plain-English status reports at agreed intervals. Where the matter ends in money or property, we manage the closing step: registration in your name, or the documented, lawful remittance of funds to your account abroad.

What to Prepare Before You Contact Us

You do not need everything below to start, but each item you can provide makes the first consultation more productive:

• Full names of the people and companies involved, including the deceased, co-heirs, sellers, or opposing parties, so we can run a conflict check.
• Your citizenship and country of residence, and those of other family members involved in the matter.
• What and where the Brazilian assets are, as best you know: property addresses, bank names, company names. Partial information is normal; locating assets is part of our work.
• Key documents you already hold: death, marriage, or birth certificates, wills, deeds, contracts, court papers, or any power of attorney you have been asked to sign.
• Any deadlines or pending proceedings you are aware of, in Brazil or at home.
• Who else is advising you: your estate attorney, accountant, financial advisor, or family office, and whether you want us to coordinate with them directly.
• Your objective and your budget readiness. Tell us what a good outcome looks like and whether you are prepared to fund proper legal work. Our fees are comparable to those charged in the United States and other developed countries.

What We Do and Do Not Do

We do

• Practice Brazilian law before Brazilian courts, notaries, registries, and authorities, and Portugal and U.S. immigration through the appropriate offices.
• Represent the foreign party. When you engage us, we act for you, not for relatives, counterparties, developers, or banks in Brazil.
• Coordinate with your foreign lawyers, tax advisors, private bankers, and family office, in their language and on their schedule.

We do not

• Provide U.S., U.K., or other foreign tax, investment, or fiduciary advice. We coordinate with your advisors who hold those mandates.
• Offer free consultations, quote fees by phone, or compete on price. If you are searching for the lowest-cost option, we are unlikely to be the right fit.
• Guarantee outcomes. No serious lawyer does. We commit to competent work, candid assessments, and disciplined execution.

Why Timing Matters

Most cross-border matters are not emergencies, but several clocks run quietly in the background. Brazilian law expects probate to be opened within 60 days of death, and late openings can carry tax penalties in many states. Unattended property accrues condominium fees and taxes and, over long periods, can be exposed to adverse-possession claims. Lawsuits served on parties abroad have response deadlines that do not pause for translation. And document chains, certificates, apostilles, translations, take weeks to assemble even when nothing goes wrong.

Acting early does not mean acting rashly. It means getting a clear scope, securing documents while they are easy to obtain, and making deliberate decisions before deadlines make them for you.

For Foreign Counsel, Family Offices & Advisors

Many of our matters arrive through the client’s existing professionals: estate and probate attorneys, trustees and fiduciaries, family offices, private banks, and accountants. We are built to work this way. Your client relationship remains yours; we serve as the Brazil leg of your team.

• Scoping before commitment. Send us the Brazil-side question and we will tell you what it involves, what it should cost, and whether it is worth pursuing, before anyone is engaged.
• Defined workstreams. Probate administration, asset and records searches, due diligence, document legalization, enforcement steps, or a discrete court proceeding, each delivered under a written scope.
• Reporting on your cadence. Status reports in English, on your schedule, in the format your file requires. Our managing partner’s U.S. admissions (Texas and California) mean your expectations do not need translating.
• Clean boundaries. We do not advise on your jurisdiction’s law and we do not solicit your client.

See Brazil local counsel for foreign law firms and our Brazil counsel page for family offices.

Related Services

• Brazil probate & inheritance for foreign heirs
• Brazil real estate for foreign buyers and owners
• Private Client Desk: wealth, planning & probate administration
• Brazil immigration & residency and Portugal immigration
• Recognition of foreign divorces in Brazil
• Litigation & dispute resolution in Brazil
• Notary services, apostilles & Brazilian certificates
• Local counsel for foreign law firms