Pratice Areas Wealth Law
Estate Planning and Wills
We support estate succession planning, preparing wills, lifetime donations, and usufruct solutions, focusing on asset protection, legal certainty, and the prevention of future conflicts.
Estate planning is decisive for ensuring that the transfer of assets occurs in an organized, predictable manner aligned with the wishes of the estate owner, while respecting both the rights of heirs and the protection of the family's most vulnerable members. In many cases, the absence of proper preparation, namely through wills, leads to complex litigation, deadlocks in the management of family businesses, and hasty decisions during moments of greater emotional vulnerability.
The choice between lifetime donations, usufruct, family pacts, or asset restructuring determines when, how, and under what terms wealth is transferred. Far from being limited to distributing assets, sound estate planning, supported by well-structured wills, seeks to preserve income and utility for the owner, balance the positions of different heirs, manage tax impacts, and ensure that companies, real estate, and investments can continue to be managed with stability.
Our intervention combines family and succession law, taxation, and corporate law, enabling the construction of legally secure, tax-aligned, and practically executable solutions tailored to the specific reality of each family and estate, with special attention to the correct use of wills as a core instrument of planning.
Services
We support the definition and drafting of wills that clearly express the testator's wishes, in compliance with statutory shares and the applicable tax framework. We evaluate the need for a will in cases of blended families, de facto unions (domestic partnerships), children from different relationships, scattered wealth, or international elements, such as assets or heirs in multiple countries. We prepare the testamentary provisions, coordinate their formalization, and, when necessary, provide support for probate and estate execution, defending the wishes expressed in the will against heirs and third parties.
We plan lifetime donations intended to benefit descendants or others, clarifying their succession and tax framework, including collation (colação) and potential exemption from collation. We prepare the deeds and other necessary documentation, ensuring the formal validity of the act and compliance with tax obligations. We evaluate the impact of donations on the balance between heirs, the donor's position, and the future division of assets, coordinating, when appropriate, with life insurance, family companies, or other wealth organization structures.
We design transactions for transferring the bare ownership (nua-propriedade) of assets with a reservation of usufruct, allowing for the anticipation of succession without the immediate loss of the right of use, habitation, or income by the owner. We analyze the suitability of these solutions to the client's profile and needs, explain their respective legal and tax consequences, and handle the creation, registration, and monitoring of the usufruct. Particular attention is given to balancing the interests of the person retaining the usufruct and the one holding the bare ownership, preventing conflicts in the day-to-day management of the assets.
For more complex estates or those that include family businesses, we develop global succession plans that integrate real estate, corporate shares, financial instruments, and other relevant assets. We structure family holdings, funds, or other organizational solutions, map asset ownership, and plan the entry of new generations into management and ownership in a gradual and controlled manner. We work in coordination with tax experts, accountants, and financial advisors so that the transfer of quotas, shares, or real estate is legally secure, tax-aligned, and compatible with business continuity. We also assist with inventory processes, asset divisions (partilhas), and potential succession disputes, evaluating opportunities for consensual solutions and, when necessary, representing clients in court to defend their succession and asset positions.
Our approach
Personal and asset diagnosis
We analyze the composition of the estate, the family structure, potential family businesses, and long-term objectives.
Customization of solutions
We combine wills, donations, usufructs, family pacts, and corporate structures, respecting statutory shares (legítimas) and the unique characteristics of each situation.
Execution and follow-up
We formalize acts, handle registrations, and monitor execution, preventing disputes and adjusting the plan to legal or personal changes.
FAQs
It is the advance planning of asset succession: who receives what, when, and under what terms. It combines wills, donations, usufruct, and the reorganization of wealth and family businesses, so that the transfer is organized, predictable, and legally secure, preventing deadlocks and disputes among heirs.
When the estate grows in size with real estate, companies, or investments, or when there are blended families, children from different relationships, heirs in multiple countries, or more vulnerable members. The earlier the plan is prepared, the more room there is to choose balanced and tax-efficient solutions.
We analyze the family and asset situation, explain limits such as statutory shares, and design clear wills that avoid contradictions and ambiguities. We prepare the provisions, coordinate the formalization, and, when necessary, support the execution of the will and the defense of the testator's wishes against heirs and third parties.
A lifetime donation is useful when one wishes to anticipate helping children or other beneficiaries, for instance, for purchasing a home, and at the same time clarify from the outset how that allocation will be considered in the future division of assets. We plan the donation, evaluate the impact on collation and statutory shares, and handle deeds and tax obligations.
In a simple donation, full ownership is transferred immediately; in a transfer with a reservation of usufruct, bare ownership is passed to the beneficiaries while the owner retains the right to use the asset or receive income. We evaluate whether usufruct is suitable for the client's profile, explain legal and tax effects, and prevent conflicts between the usufructuary and bare owners.
We construct global estate succession plans, integrating real estate, corporate shares, financial instruments, and other assets. We structure family holdings or other organizational solutions and project the gradual entry of new generations into management and ownership, always coordinating with tax experts, accountants, and financial advisors.
We analyze which law applies to the succession, check for conflicts between legal systems, and evaluate whether it makes sense to use a single connecting factor (for example, choosing the permissible applicable law). We adjust wills and wealth structures to reduce the risk of contradictory decisions in different countries.
In each solution, we evaluate the impact on stamp duty, IMI, IMT, income taxation, and, when relevant, international tax regimes. The goal is to ensure that the choice between wills, donations, usufruct, or corporate restructuring does not create unnecessary tax costs or jeopardize existing benefits.
Yes. We follow inventory processes, asset divisions, and succession disputes, defending the position of the heirs or the wishes expressed in the estate plan. We first seek consensual solutions; when those are not possible, we represent clients in court.
It should be reviewed whenever relevant changes occur: marriages, divorces, births, deaths, the sale of major assets, or significant legislative updates. We perform periodic reviews to guarantee that the plan remains aligned with the reality of the family and the estate.