Cost of making a Last Will & Testament in Brasil

04/26/24 @jc94583.  Good morning, John.  The legal situation for wills in Brazil is different from what it is in English-speaking countries, but it's not really all that complicated.  The basic distribution of the estate is largely set by law, and if your wife is your principal heir, your will starts out pretty much in conformity with the law already.  If you shop around and all you need is a serviceable will to ensure that your estate passes to your wife and other family members with minimum complications, chances are that you can find a will that costs you in the area of R$2,000 - 5,000, with legal advice and cartório services.

It sounds like the firm you're talking to wants to offer you additional estate planning services that you may or may not need.  You should consider evaluating those services, and talking to other lawyers who specialize in Family Law.

Each State Section of the OAB (Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil) publishes a fee schedule every year.  This is the one for Paraná, which happens to be easily available online; they'll all be pretty close.  You can always ask how the price you're being quoted differs from the "Tabela de Honorários" for your state:

https://honorarios.oabpr.org.br/wp-cont … etoria.pdf

@jc94583, I am currently doing the same thing right now and it is not that expensive.  For a private will, it does not cost that much as it is pretty much boiler plate data.  You can even do it yourself.  The price range that @abthree is mentioning is about what I am paying.  It may be that you were being quoted for registering the will but this does not add that much to the price.

My gut feeling here is that you were quoted a full financial strategy package.... The will portion should be cheap but the financial planning side would be somewhat subject to debate as to the value etc....

Please ask for a detailed quotation and decide whether you need the whole package or part of that only.

Thank you Abthree and Pablo,

I really appreciate the insight.  I was suffering from "sticker shock". 

Logically it must be a full financial package, something that I am not looking for.  I will reach out to some other attorneys and get a more reasonable quote.

The fee schedule will be very helpful

Have a great weekend

Best regards

John