Private Wealth & Estate Counsel – Brazil
Bilingual, US-licensed Brazil-side counsel for the global family with assets, heirs, or plans in Brazil – and for the wealth advisors and estate lawyers who guide them.
When a family’s wealth crosses borders, the Brazil-side legal layer often arrives late. A US estate lawyer drafts a perfectly good will that doesn’t account for Brazilian forced heirship. A wealth advisor structures a holding that triggers ITCMD in a state nobody checked. A family inherits an apartment in Ipanema and discovers the registry has been frozen for nine years. The work we do is the work that prevents those calls.
We are not a generalist firm with a private-client side gig. Brazil-side private wealth is one of five practices we built the firm around – alongside cross-border tax, real estate, arbitration, and counsel to foreign law firms. The team behind this page handles probate matters in São Paulo and Rio courts every month, drafts donations and succession structures coordinated with US and Portuguese counsel, and reviews property holdings for families whose principals do not live in Brazil and do not want to.
And – equally important – we know what we are not. We do not provide US tax advice. We do not act as fiduciaries. We do not manage investments. When those needs arise, we work alongside the family’s existing advisors. Most of our engagements come through that relationship, not around it.
Content reviewed by Luciano Oliveira, LL.M., attorney licensed in Brazil, Texas and California. Last updated: June 2026.
Related Brazil private wealth pages:
Need Brazil Private Wealth Counsel?
Request a Confidential Consultation
[email protected]
(214) 432-8100
+55-21-2018-1225
#1 Contact us for a confidential scoping review, or
#2 Schedule a consultation now.
Who this practice is for
Three audiences, with overlapping needs and different working styles.
Families with Brazil exposure
You may be a Brazilian-American couple in Dallas whose parents still own property in Rio. You may be a European principal whose family has a beach house in Trancoso and a holding in São Paulo. You may be a Brazilian family who has moved to Lisbon and needs to clean up succession before everyone is in their seventies. The common thread: Brazil is one of two or more jurisdictions in your financial life, and you want it handled by people who treat both sides of that life as equally serious.
US and UK estate lawyers, and the wealth advisors who refer to them
You have a client with Brazilian assets. You can draft the US trust, you can structure the gift, you cannot file the inventário, sign at the cartório, or interpret RFB residency rules. You need a Brazil-side counterpart who will deliver in US-style work product, communicate in English at partner level, bill in USD on letterhead that survives client review, and not surface in front of your client without coordination. That is the engagement we are built for. The /for-wealth-advisors/ page covers the engagement mechanics in detail.
Family offices, MFOs, and private banks
If you are an executive at a single-family office with Brazilian assets, or a relationship manager at a private bank whose client just inherited in São Paulo, your need is operational continuity. The Brazil leg of the engagement should run quietly, on time, and produce reportable documents the rest of your team can read. We staff at the senior level, single point of contact, monthly status if you want it, deliverables in English by default.
What we do — and what each piece of work looks like
The six service areas below are the practice. Each one has its own page with the detail. The summary below is the orientation.
| Lifetime Estate Planning | Acting now so the family does not litigate later. Donations with usufruct, holding structures, premium will drafting, ITCMD planning by state, coordination with US and Portuguese estate counsel. The most leveraged work in the practice. |
| Estate Planning & Succession for Global Families | The strategic frame for cross-border estates. Foreign-will interpretation, forced-heirship interaction, marital-property regime cleanup, multi-jurisdictional succession architecture. Often the starting point for a multi-year engagement. |
| Probate & Estate Administration | When the event has already happened. Inventário judicial or extrajudicial, foreign-heir representation, document apostilling, ITCMD filings, distribution and registry transfer. Talhes Ferreira Bueno leads this work. |
| Asset Governance & Brazilian Real Estate Holdings | The ongoing operating layer. Registry hygiene, leases and property-manager agreements, condo and municipal obligations, sale readiness. For families with one or more Brazilian properties they intend to hold or eventually sell. |
| Residency & Tax-Residency for Private Clients | Brazil residency where it serves a wealth strategy — retirement, investor visa, or family reunification — and tax-residency coordination with the family’s US or European tax advisors. Not a visa shop. Coordinated with the broader plan. |
| Wealth Management & Private Client Counsel | The hub-level engagement model for families with three or more of the above running in parallel. One senior partner, one workplan, one set of deliverables, one invoice. |
Why families and advisors choose us for Brazil-side work
Three things separate this practice from the generalist Brazilian firms most of our clients encountered first.
Bilingual at partner level. Not “we have someone who speaks English.” The partners on this practice draft, negotiate, and argue in English and Portuguese. Engagement letters, memos, opinions, and status reports are produced in English by default. The Strategic Plan calls this the firm’s organizing differentiator, and it is.
US bar admissions where they matter. Luciano Oliveira is admitted in Texas (TX) and California (CA) in addition to Brazil. For US-based wealth advisors and estate lawyers, that means engagement letters that look like US engagement letters, conflict checks that work the way US firms expect, and a co-counsel relationship that does not require translating across two professional cultures.
22 years of doing only this. Since 2004. Six offices across Brazil, Portugal, and the United States. More than 1,200 international clients served. Heritage matters here for a specific reason – the question “will this Brazilian firm still exist in five years to administer the estate plan we are building today?” is one a careful US estate lawyer should ask. The answer is yes.
Working with us
A first engagement on a Brazil-side matter typically follows three steps. None of them require sending us sensitive family information upfront.
1. Conflict-clearance call. Twenty to thirty minutes. Names, jurisdictions, the shape of the issue. No fee. After this, you know whether we can act and we know whether the matter fits the practice.
2. Scoping memo. A short written deliverable — usually two to four pages — identifying the Brazil-side workstream, the documents we need, the likely timeline, and a fixed or estimated fee. This is the document a wealth advisor or estate lawyer can put in front of the principal.
3. Engagement. USD engagement letter on Oliveira Lawyers letterhead, one named partner, defined deliverables, defined fee. Status communicated on whatever cadence the engagement requires — typically monthly for ongoing matters, by milestone for transactional ones.
| Speak with Luciano Oliveira
Confidential conflict-clearance call. Schedule your consultation with our managing partner here. |
A note on what we do not do
We are not a US tax practice. We do not provide investment advice. We are not a fiduciary or a trustee. We do not manage property. When your matter requires those services, we work with the professionals already serving you – and where the relationship is new, we can introduce you to ones we trust. The Brazil-side legal layer is what we do. We do it well because we have not tried to do everything else.
Who uses Oliveira Lawyers for Brazil private wealth matters?
Single-family offices and family investment companies
You may be a family office CEO, COO, CIO, general counsel, principal’s chief of staff, investment director, trustee, or fiduciary responsible for Brazil assets or a Brazil-linked family issue. You may need a Brazil-side legal team to manage real estate, probate, estate planning, residency, document formalization, local counsel, or advisor reporting.
For this audience, the priority is not only legal analysis. It is continuity, discretion, and controlled execution. A Brazil issue may affect family governance, asset liquidity, residency plans, tax coordination, succession, and the credibility of the advisor team.
Multi-family offices, private banks, and wealth managers
You may advise multiple families and need a reliable Brazil legal resource when a client has Brazil real estate, inheritance issues, family members in Brazil, asset-sale questions, residency plans, or tax-residency coordination needs.
You need a Brazil legal team that understands advisor dynamics: protect the client relationship, define the local workstream, report clearly, and avoid creating confusion across the broader advisory team.
Global families and internationally mobile principals
You may be a principal, spouse, next-generation family member, foreign heir, or family representative with assets or plans connected to Brazil. You may not know whether the issue is real estate, probate, residency, succession, tax coordination, or document formalization.
That is normal. A Brazil private wealth matter often begins as one question and then reveals several connected workstreams. The point of Brazil counsel is to map those workstreams and coordinate what should happen next.
How can Brazil counsel support UAE, Saudi, GCC, and global family offices?
Many global families now manage wealth through cross-border structures, family offices, private banks, foundations, trusts, corporate vehicles, or advisor-led ecosystems. When those families have Brazil exposure, the Brazil legal workstream must fit into the family’s global governance model.
This is especially relevant for families and advisors in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Doha, Kuwait, London, New York, Miami, Singapore, and other private wealth hubs.
DIFC’s 2026 Global Wealth Outlook described a global HNWI population of nearly 23 million people holding close to US$87 trillion in wealth, and stated that wealth strategies are increasingly shaped by volatility, generational change, jurisdictional risk, and private market access. It also reported that DIFC had more than 1,289 family-related entities and described Dubai as a rising hub for private and family wealth.
Brazil counsel can support these families by focusing on the local layer: Brazilian property, inheritance, residency, private client documentation, legal opinions, local counsel, due diligence, and coordination with the existing advisory team.
GCC and global family office coordination questions
- Is the client a principal, family office, private bank client, trustee, or investment vehicle?
- Are assets held personally, through a company, or through a family structure?
- Are UAE, DIFC, ADGM, Saudi, Qatar, Kuwait, UK, US, or Singapore advisors involved?
- Does the family need Brazil real estate acquisition, asset governance, probate, or residency support?
- Are source-of-funds, banking, tax, or fiduciary issues connected to the Brazil legal workstream?
- Does the family need advisor-ready reporting rather than a consumer-style legal explanation?
Ready to Scope a Brazil Private Wealth Matter?
Submit It for Confidential Review
[email protected]
(214) 432-8100
+55-21-2018-1225
#1 Contact us for a confidential conflict check, or
#2 Schedule a consultation now.
FAQs: Brazil counsel for family offices and private wealth
When does a family office need Brazil counsel?
A family office should involve Brazil counsel when a family owns, buys, sells, inherits, finances, manages, or disputes Brazilian assets, or when residency, succession, probate, real estate, tax-residency coordination, or Brazilian law questions affect the family’s broader strategy.
Can Oliveira Lawyers work with private banks, trustees, and foreign counsel?
Yes. Oliveira Lawyers can coordinate the Brazil legal workstream with private banks, trustees, fiduciaries, foreign law firms, tax advisors, accountants, wealth managers, and family office teams, depending on the engagement structure and ethical requirements.
Does Brazil require local steps for Brazilian real estate ownership?
Yes. Brazil’s Civil Code states that rights in real estate transferred or constituted between living persons are acquired through registration with the Real Estate Registry, except in legally provided cases. This makes registry control central to Brazil real estate governance and succession planning.
Can Brazil probate be handled through a notary?
Potentially, depending on the facts. The CNJ approved changes in 2024 allowing inventories and asset partition to be handled through notaries even when minors or legally incapacitated persons are involved, under applicable safeguards. The specific case should be reviewed by Brazil counsel before assuming a notary or court pathway.
Can Brazil real estate investment support residency?
Potentially, yes. Brazil’s RN 36 provides a residence route for qualifying urban real estate investments made with foreign-origin resources. The general threshold is R$1,000,000, with a possible reduction of up to 30 percent for qualifying properties in Brazil’s North and Northeast regions. The investment should be reviewed before assuming eligibility.
Does Oliveira Lawyers provide tax or investment advice for family offices?
We have tax advisory services and may provide a legal opinion on your investment plans. Additionally, we coordinate with accounting, investment, banking, fiduciary, and foreign-law advisors where needed.