Multiple Heirs in Multiple Countries: Coordinating Powers of Attorney

Four siblings. One in Newark, one in Lisbon, one in Tokyo, one in Belo Horizonte. One apartment in Recife, two bank accounts, a car. The parents are gone. Everyone agrees, more or less, on what should happen. And yet nothing has happened for eighteen months, because every time one document arrives, another has expired, and nobody is quite sure whose lawyer is whose.

This is the most common shape of a stalled Brazilian estate with heirs abroad, and it is not a legal problem. The law is settled: one Brazilian attorney can act for every heir whose interests align, each of them signing a power of attorney in their own country. What stalls these estates is coordination — different signing paths in different countries, validity windows that expire while the slowest sibling finds a consulate, a template that one notary accepts and another rejects, and a family group chat standing in for a case plan.

This guide is written by the ZS Advogados team for families in exactly that position. It explains why a single attorney is not only permitted but usually preferable, when the ethics rules say one attorney cannot act for all, what the instrument must say, how it is signed in each of the three available ways, and — the part most guides skip — how the signing is actually sequenced across countries so that the deed happens once. It assumes you already know what happens in the first week after a parent dies in Brazil and which inventário route the estate qualifies for.

Every legal claim below is tied to a named provision. Where consular or notarial practice differs by country or cartório, we say so.

Why is one attorney for all the heirs the normal arrangement?

Because a Brazilian inventário is, structurally, a single proceeding about a single estate, not a set of parallel claims. The court or the notary needs one set of first declarations, one asset list, one valuation, one tax computation, one plan of partition. When each heir arrives with their own counsel, the same documents are produced four times, the same questions are answered four times, and every draft circulates through four offices before anyone signs.

The rules allow the single arrangement expressly. In the notarial route, every party must be assisted by an attorney (CPC/2015, art. 610, § 2º; Resolução CNJ nº 35/2007, art. 8º), and the attorney may be common to all — the resolution speaks of the attorney’s presence, not of one per party. Heirs may be represented by power of attorney executed by public instrument with special powers (Resolução CNJ nº 35/2007, art. 12). In the judicial route the same attorney can hold powers from all the heirs and can be the counsel of record for the inventariante as well.

The efficiency is real, but the deeper reason families choose one attorney is control of the sequence. Powers of attorney, certificates and CPFs have to arrive in an order and within windows; a single office holding all the mandates can see the whole board and move the pieces in the right order. Four offices cannot.

Legal basis: mandatory assistance by an attorney in the notarial route is art. 610, § 2º, of the CPC/2015 and art. 8º of Resolução CNJ nº 35/2007; representation by public power of attorney with special powers is art. 12 of the same resolution; the general law of mandate is arts. 653–692 of the Código Civil (Lei nº 10.406/2002).

When can one attorney not act for all of them?

When their interests genuinely conflict. The OAB’s Código de Ética e Disciplina bars attorneys in the same firm, or working together on a permanent basis, from representing clients with opposing interests (art. 19). And where a conflict arises between the attorney’s own clients that the attorney cannot reconcile, art. 20 requires them to choose — “with prudence and discretion” — one of the mandates and renounce the others, professional secrecy being preserved in every case. That is an obligation on the lawyer rather than a penalty on the family, but it lands on the family all the same, because it happens mid-estate.

What counts as a conflict in an estate is narrower than families fear. Siblings who want different assets but agree on how to value them are not in conflict; they are negotiating a partition, which is what the proceeding is for. A surviving spouse whose meação must be separated from the inheritance is not in conflict with the children merely because the arithmetic affects both. Heirs who simply do not like each other are not in conflict.

Conflict, in the sense that forces separate counsel, looks like this:

• one heir disputes another’s status as heir (a contested paternity, an unrecognized union, a challenged adoption);
• one heir alleges that another concealed or diverted assets — the sonegação the Código Civil punishes by loss of the concealed asset’s share (arts. 1.992–1.996);
• the heirs disagree on values in a way that cannot be resolved by agreeing to a court appraisal;
• a will benefits some heirs and others intend to challenge it;
• an heir is also a creditor of the estate, or owes it money, and the amounts are disputed.

In those cases the family still benefits from coordination — one attorney can act for the aligned heirs, and the dissenting heir’s own counsel deals with a single counterpart rather than three — but the mandates must be separate from the start. An attorney who takes all four and discovers the conflict in month six has to give up three clients at the worst possible moment.

Legal basis: the prohibition on representing opposing interests is art. 19 of the Código de Ética e Disciplina da OAB (Resolução CFOAB nº 02/2015); the duty to opt for one mandate and renounce the others when a conflict arises between clients, preserving professional secrecy, is art. 20; the general duties of the profession are the Estatuto da Advocacia (Lei nº 8.906/1994); the penalty for concealing estate assets is arts. 1.992–1.996 of the Código Civil.

Speak to counsel — disclose the family history in the first conversation. The estate’s counsel needs to know about the estranged sibling, the second family, the loan that was never repaid, before accepting mandates. It is far easier to structure separate representation at the start than to unwind a common one later.

What must the power of attorney actually say?

Brazilian law distinguishes between powers of ordinary administration and everything else. A mandate in general terms confers only administrative powers; to alienate, mortgage, settle, or perform any act exceeding ordinary administration, the powers must be express and special (Código Civil, art. 661, § 1º). Signing a partition, agreeing values, renouncing a share and paying a transfer tax are all beyond ordinary administration. This is the single most frequent reason a foreign power of attorney is rejected: it says “to represent me in all matters relating to my late father’s estate” and nothing more.

Our guide to powers of attorney in Brazil covers the instrument generally; the inventário from abroad page covers its use in an estate. A serviceable instrument for a Brazilian inventário identifies, at least:

Element	What to include	Why
The grantor	Full name, nationality, civil status and marriage regime, profession, passport and CPF, address abroad	Identifies the heir as the deed will
The attorney(s)	Full name, OAB number, CPF, address; ideally two, jointly or severally	Allows substitution and continuity
The deceased and the estate	Full name, date and place of death, CPF	Ties the mandate to this estate only
Representation powers	To represent the grantor in the judicial or extrajudicial inventário and partilha, before any court, notary, registry, bank, tax authority and public body	The core power
Partition powers	To agree the plan of partition, accept assets in payment of the share, sign the deed or the judicial terms, agree values	Beyond ordinary administration
Money and discharge	To receive amounts, give discharge, open and operate accounts for that purpose	Otherwise funds cannot be released
Disposition powers (optional)	To cede hereditary rights, to renounce, to sell inherited assets, with or without a floor	Only if the heir wants these options; each has tax effects
Tax and administrative powers	To sign ITCMD declarations and pay the tax; to obtain and regularize a CPF; to request certificates; to sign the estate’s tax returns	The practical bulk of the work
Litigation powers	The ad judicia clause with the special powers listed in CPC art. 105 (to settle, waive, acknowledge, receive, give discharge, sign a commitment)	Required in the judicial route
Substitution	Power to substitute (substabelecer), with or without reservation	Lets counsel appoint a local correspondent in the state of the assets
Duration	Express term or “until revoked”, and a statement that it survives for the purpose of the inventário	Some notaries want a term; others want none

Two drafting choices repay thought. Name two attorneys, jointly and severally, so that the death, illness or absence of one does not send four siblings back to four consulates. And decide up front whether the instrument includes disposition powers. An heir who does not want their share sold without a further signature should say so; an heir who lives far from any consulate and expects to sell should include the power now, with a price floor if that gives comfort.

Legal basis: express special powers for acts beyond ordinary administration are art. 661, § 1º, of the Código Civil; the special powers required of litigation counsel are art. 105 of the CPC/2015; substitution is arts. 667 and 655 of the Código Civil; ratification of acts exceeding the mandate is art. 662; revocation and its effects are arts. 682 and 686.

How is it signed abroad — the three paths?

The instrument must be a public one for the notarial route (Resolução CNJ nº 35/2007, art. 12), and in practice notaries and courts expect the public form in the judicial route too, because acts on real estate above a modest statutory threshold require public form (Código Civil, arts. 108 and 657). There are three ways to achieve that from abroad.

Path 1 — At a Brazilian consulate (heirs who are Brazilian nationals)

The consul acts as a Brazilian notary. This path is open to heirs who hold Brazilian nationality: art. 18 of the LINDB (Decreto-Lei nº 4.657/1942) authorises Brazilian consular authorities to perform notarial and civil-registry acts for Brazilians abroad. An heir who is a foreign national generally cannot have a procuração pública drawn up at a Brazilian consulate and uses Path 2 instead. Where the path is open, the heir attends with identification, the consulate draws up the instrument in Portuguese in its own book, the heir signs, and the consulate issues a certified transcript. The result is a Brazilian public deed: no apostille, no translation, no registration for effect against third parties, because it was never a foreign document. Consulates work by appointment, publish their own document requirements, and generally accept a draft prepared by Brazilian counsel, which is how the wording is kept identical across siblings.

The other limits are practical. Some countries have one consulate for a large territory; appointment lead times vary; and a consulate may insist on its own template for certain clauses. For heirs who hold a Brazilian passport or CPF, consulates also handle the CPF application and civil-registry transcriptions in the same visit.

Path 2 — Before a local notary, then apostille, then sworn translation, then registration (open to any heir)

Where the heir is a foreign national, or a consulate is impractical, the heir signs before a notary public in their own country, usually on a bilingual or Portuguese draft supplied by Brazilian counsel. That instrument is a foreign document and needs four things to work in Brazil:

1. Apostille by the competent authority of the country where it was notarized, under the 1961 Hague Convention (in force for Brazil since 2016 by Decreto nº 8.660/2016). In the United States that is typically the Secretary of State of the state where the notary is commissioned; elsewhere it is a foreign ministry, a court or a designated office. Countries that are not members of the Convention use consular legalization at a Brazilian consulate instead.
2. Sworn translation in Brazil by a tradutor público registered with a Junta Comercial (Lei nº 14.195/2021, arts. 22–34), of the instrument and of the apostille.
3. Registration at a Registro de Títulos e Documentos in Brazil, which gives the foreign instrument effect against third parties (Lei nº 6.015/1973, art. 129, 6º).
4. Acceptance by the notary or court, which may still question the foreign notary’s certification of the grantor’s capacity and identity — the reason the draft should follow Brazilian conventions closely.

This path works in every Hague country and, with legalization, everywhere else. It is slower and has more points of failure — the most common being a photocopy apostilled instead of the original, a notary who certifies only the signature and not the grantor’s identity in the way Brazilian practice expects, and a translation by someone who is not a sworn translator.

Path 3 — By videoconference under e-Notariado

Brazilian notaries can draw up electronic public instruments with the grantor appearing by videoconference on the Colégio Notarial’s e-Notariado platform. The governing rules changed in 2023: the provimento that created e-Notariado in 2020 was revoked, and the regime now sits in the CNJ’s Código Nacional de Normas for the extrajudicial forum (Provimento CNJ nº 149/2023, arts. 284 and following).

Two features of that regime decide whether this path is open to a given heir.

• The certificate. The grantor must sign exclusively through e-Notariado, using a certificado digital notarizado — a digital identity that the Código defines as issued to a person identified by a notary, and which the notary provides free of charge to the service’s users. Whether a particular heir abroad can obtain one is a question for the notary, not something to assume.
• Territorial competence. Competence for electronic notarial acts is absolute and follows the notary’s own circunscrição; for an electronic power of attorney specifically, the competent notary is that of the grantor’s domicile or, where a property is involved, of the place where the property sits.

Neither rule was drafted with a grantor living abroad in view, and practice varies between notaries. For an heir who already holds Brazilian documents and can obtain the certificate, this can be the fastest path of all; for a foreign national without them, it is often unavailable. Ask the specific notary before planning around it.

	Consulate	Local notary + apostille	e-Notariado
Nature of instrument	Brazilian public deed	Foreign document made effective in Brazil	Brazilian electronic public deed
Apostille / translation / RTD	None	All three (legalization where no apostille)	None
Who can use it	Heirs who are Brazilian nationals, within reach of a consulate (LINDB, art. 18)	Any heir, and the standard route for foreign nationals	Grantors able to obtain the platform certificate, subject to the notary’s territorial competence
Typical failure point	Appointment lead time; consular template	Wrong copy apostilled; non-sworn translation; identity certification	Certificate unavailable to the grantor
Wording control	Counsel’s draft, subject to consular practice	Counsel’s draft	Counsel’s draft

Legal basis: notarial and civil-registry acts performed by Brazilian consular authorities for Brazilian nationals abroad are art. 18 of the LINDB (Decreto-Lei nº 4.657/1942); the public-form requirement for the notarial route is art. 12 of Resolução CNJ nº 35/2007; public form for acts on real estate is arts. 108 and 657 of the Código Civil; the Hague Apostille Convention is Decreto nº 8.660/2016 and Resolução CNJ nº 228/2016; sworn translation is Lei nº 14.195/2021, arts. 22–34; registration of foreign documents for effect against third parties is Lei nº 6.015/1973, art. 129, 6º; electronic notarial acts and e-Notariado are arts. 284 and following of the Código Nacional de Normas da Corregedoria Nacional de Justiça — Foro Extrajudicial (Provimento CNJ nº 149/2023), which revoked Provimento CNJ nº 100/2020.

How is the signing sequenced across countries?

This is the section that turns a stalled estate into a moving one. The principle is simple: the slowest item sets the calendar, and everything with a validity window is ordered last.

Step 1 — One template. Counsel drafts a single Portuguese instrument (with a courtesy translation for heirs who do not read Portuguese), identical for every heir except the grantor’s details and any heir-specific option such as disposition powers. Identical wording means the notary reads the instruments once.

Step 2 — One path per heir, chosen by geography and documents. The sibling in Lisbon uses the consulate; the sibling in a US state five hours from the nearest consulate uses a local notary and the state’s apostille office; the sibling who already holds a Brazilian certificate uses e-Notariado. Counsel writes down, per heir, the path, the appointment date, the expected date the instrument reaches Brazil, and the steps that follow (translation, registration).

Step 3 — CPFs first. Every heir needs a CPF before their instrument is useful, and a CPF application can run in parallel with the appointment. Existing CPFs are checked for standing, not assumed: foreign nationals aged 16 or over with an address abroad have had to update their CPF registration annually through Receita Federal’s app since 2025 — optional in 2024, mandatory from 2025 (IN RFB nº 2.172/2024, art. 23-A, inserted by IN RFB nº 2.236/2024) — and a suspended CPF is discovered, always, on the day of the deed unless someone looks earlier. See how to get a CPF without being in Brazil.

Step 4 — Civil-registry certificates in parallel. The foreign birth and marriage certificates that prove kinship and marriage regime go through their own apostille-and-translation cycle at the same time as the powers of attorney, since they use the same offices.

Step 5 — Recent certificates last. Property matrículas, tax-clearance certificates and the CENSEC certificate on the absence of a will (the mandatory search now sits in the Código Nacional de Normas, Provimento CNJ nº 149/2023, art. 441, II, which superseded Provimento CNJ nº 56/2016) all have short practical validity, and there is no general national period. The one national rule is narrow: for a public deed on real estate, the registry’s certificate of ações reais e pessoais reipersecutórias and of ônus reais is valid for that purpose for 30 days (Decreto nº 93.240/1986, art. 1º, IV). Everything else comes from each state’s judicial Corregedoria and from the individual cartório. Ask the chosen notary what window it applies, then order these when every power of attorney has arrived and been registered — not before.

Step 6 — ITCMD, then the deed. The tax is declared and paid; the receipt joins the file; the deed is signed by counsel for every represented heir on one day, at a notary chosen for familiarity with foreign instruments — any notary in Brazil, since venue rules do not apply (Resolução CNJ nº 35/2007, art. 1º).

Step 7 — Substitution to a local correspondent where useful. Where the assets sit in a distant state and registration or a bank release requires physical presence, the power to substitute lets counsel appoint a correspondent there without a new signature from any heir.

One channel. Families that succeed appoint one heir as the point of contact for logistics — not for decisions, which every heir makes for themselves — and keep a shared, dated list of what has been signed, sent, received and registered. Counsel keeps the same list. The group chat is for everything else.

Speak to counsel — the calendar is country-specific. Consular appointment lead times, apostille processing times and the availability of e-Notariado for a given heir change from year to year and from city to city. Have counsel build the calendar from current information for each heir’s location rather than from a generic estimate.

What about the heir who is a special case?

Every multi-heir estate has at least one.

• The heir who wants to renounce. Renunciation must be by public instrument or a term in the court record (Código Civil, art. 1.806) and is irrevocable (art. 1.812). The power of attorney must say “renounce” expressly. A renunciation in favour of a named person is treated as an acceptance followed by a gift, with gift-tax consequences; a pure renunciation returns the share to the estate. Model it before signing.
• The heir who wants to sell their share to a sibling now. A cession of hereditary rights requires a public deed (art. 1.793) — and a cession of the heir’s right over one specific asset of the estate is ineffective (art. 1.793, § 2º). The co-heirs have a right of first refusal, on equal terms, before the share goes to someone outside the succession (art. 1.794); a co-heir kept in the dark can claim the ceded share for themselves within 180 days by depositing the price (art. 1.795). A married heir’s spouse may also have to consent: the Código Civil treats a right to an open succession as immovable property (art. 80, II) and requires the other spouse’s authorization to dispose of immovables in every regime except separação absoluta (art. 1.647, I), so the two read together are why notaries ask for the outorga. That combination is settled practice rather than an express rule, and whether consent is needed turns on the couple’s regime — check it before the instrument is drafted, not at the notary’s counter. The power of attorney must in any event include the power to cede.
• The heir who is a minor. A minor is represented by their parents or guardian; the estate goes to court unless the notarial exception created by Resolução CNJ nº 571/2024 applies — the minor’s share paid in an ideal part of every asset in the estate, no act of disposition of the minor’s assets in the deed, and a favourable manifestation of the Ministério Público, on which the deed’s effectiveness depends. The parent’s power of attorney to counsel must state that it is given in representation of the minor.
• The heir who died after the deceased. Their share passed to their own heirs, whose inventário can be processed jointly with the first where the heirs are the same (CPC/2015, art. 672). Their heirs sign powers of attorney in turn.
• The heir nobody can find. The estate goes to court, and the absent heir is cited by public notice (CPC/2015, art. 259, III). The other heirs remain represented by one attorney.
• The heir who does not read Portuguese. Counsel supplies a courtesy translation of the draft deed before it is signed on their behalf. Consent given to a document one cannot read is the seed of the later dispute.

Legal basis: renunciation is arts. 1.806 and 1.812 of the Código Civil; cession of hereditary rights and co-heirs’ preference are arts. 1.793–1.795; joint processing of successive estates is art. 672 of the CPC/2015; citation by public notice is art. 259, III, of the CPC/2015.

Hypothetical illustration — not a real client. Three siblings — in Chicago, Porto and Osaka — inherit a house in Florianópolis and a savings account from their mother; their father died years earlier. Counsel drafts one instrument naming two attorneys jointly and severally, with representation, partition, discharge and tax powers, and a disposition power to sell the house with a price floor, which all three want. The Porto sibling signs at the consulate in week two. The Osaka sibling signs at the consulate in week three. The Chicago sibling, far from the consulate, signs before an Illinois notary; the apostille from the Illinois Secretary of State, the sworn translation and the registration in Brazil take a further five weeks. CPFs run in parallel. Recent certificates are ordered only when the Chicago instrument is registered. The deed is signed on one day at a São Paulo notary. Every distinguishing detail here is invented — the cities, the assets, the family — to show the sequence, not a result. Nothing in this example predicts any outcome.

What are the most common mistakes?

• A generic power of attorney. “All matters relating to the estate” confers ordinary administration only (Código Civil, art. 661, § 1º). List the special powers.
• Different wording for each sibling. Four templates mean four sets of notarial objections. One template, one review.
• Apostilling the wrong thing. A photocopy, or the translation instead of the original. Apostille the original notarized instrument in the issuing country.
• A fluent relative instead of a sworn translator. Only a tradutor público registered with a Junta Comercial produces a translation the notary accepts.
• Ordering recent certificates before the slowest instrument has arrived. They expire while the last sibling finds a consulate.
• Accepting mandates from all heirs before asking about the family history. A conflict discovered late costs the aligned heirs their counsel.
• Omitting disposition or litigation powers “to keep it simple”. The estate then needs a second instrument the day something changes.
• Naming a single attorney. Illness or absence sends everyone back to the consulate.
• Letting a represented heir sign a deed they have not read in a language they understand. Consent without comprehension is where later disputes begin.

Coordinating heirs abroad at a glance

Question	Answer
Can one attorney act for all heirs?	Yes, absent a genuine conflict (CED/OAB arts. 19–20; Res. 35/2007, arts. 8º and 12)
What form must the instrument take?	Public instrument with express special powers (Res. 35/2007 art. 12; Código Civil art. 661, § 1º)
Where is it signed?	Brazilian consulate, for heirs who are Brazilian nationals (no apostille); local notary + apostille + sworn translation + RTD, the route for foreign nationals; or e-Notariado where available
What comes first?	CPFs and the slow instruments; recent certificates last; ITCMD, then the deed
What if one heir will not sign?	Court; that heir is cited; the others stay represented by one attorney
What if one heir wants out?	Renunciation (arts. 1.806, 1.812) or cession (art. 1.793) — express power required, tax modelled first
Does it affect the probate in my own country?	No — separate proceeding over separate assets; coordinate, do not merge

Key takeaways

• One Brazilian attorney can represent every heir whose interests align, wherever they live; the notarial route admits representation by public power of attorney with special powers (Res. 35/2007, art. 12).
• A genuine conflict — contested heir status, concealed assets, a challenged will — requires separate counsel from the start (CED/OAB, arts. 19–20: the attorney must opt for one mandate and renounce the others). Disclose the family history first.
• The instrument must list the special powers expressly (Código Civil, art. 661, § 1º): represent, partition, receive and discharge, settle, pay taxes, substitute; disposition and litigation powers if wanted. Name two attorneys.
• An heir who is a Brazilian national can sign at a consulate (LINDB, art. 18) — the result is a Brazilian public deed with no apostille or translation. A foreign-national heir uses a local notary, apostille, sworn translation and registration.
• Sequence the signing: one template; one path per heir; CPFs and kinship certificates in parallel; recent certificates last; ITCMD; one deed day.
• Special heirs — renouncing, ceding, minor, deceased, missing — each have a named provision and a named solution, none of which breaks the single-attorney arrangement for the rest.

Related guides on this site

• My parent died in Brazil — what happens to their property?
• Extrajudicial vs judicial inventário: which one you qualify for
• Inheriting property in Brazil as a non-resident heir
• Apostille and the Hague Convention for documents used in Brazil
• Sworn translation in Brazil
• How to get a CPF without being in Brazil
• Powers of attorney and resident representation for foreign companies
• Brazilian consulates and embassies: a guide for foreigners

How ZS Advogados can help

We act as the single Brazilian counsel for families whose heirs are spread across countries: the conflict check before mandates are accepted, one instrument drafted to the standard the chosen notary applies, a signing path and calendar per heir built from current consular and apostille information, CPFs and kinship certificates run in parallel, recent certificates ordered at the right moment, the ITCMD computed under the current law of the relevant state, and the deed or the judicial partition executed once. Where a conflict requires separate counsel for one heir, we say so at the outset and coordinate with that counsel. We work in English and Portuguese, and we describe the engagement for heirs abroad on our probate for heirs abroad page. For an orientation figure on the tax, use the ITCMD calculator.

• International law — consular and apostilled powers of attorney, foreign documents, coordination with counsel abroad
• Family law — the inventário itself, renunciations, cessions, representation of minors
• Tax law — ITCMD, the tax effects of renunciation and cession, later capital gains

Book a consultation to have a signing plan built for every heir in your family, wherever they are.

Technical review by the ZS Advogados Associados team, including co-founding partner Karina Peres Silvério (OAB/SP 331.050) and founding partner Zachariah Zagol (OAB/SP 351.356). Contact: zac@zsassociados.com — +55 (18) 3908-1653 — Presidente Prudente, SP.

Sources and legal basis

• Código Civil — Lei nº 10.406/2002 (arts. 108, 653–692, 1.647, 1.793–1.795, 1.806, 1.812, 1.992–1.996)
• Código de Processo Civil — Lei nº 13.105/2015 (arts. 23, 105, 237, 259, 610, 672)
• Resolução CNJ nº 35/2007 (arts. 1º, 8º, 12)
• Resolução CNJ nº 571/2024, de 26 de agosto de 2024 — insere os arts. 12-A e 12-B na Resolução nº 35/2007
• Provimento CNJ nº 149/2023 — Código Nacional de Normas da Corregedoria Nacional de Justiça, Foro Extrajudicial (atos notariais eletrônicos, e-Notariado)
• Provimento CNJ nº 149/2023, art. 441, II — consulta obrigatória ao RCTO/CENSEC nos inventários (sucede o Provimento CNJ nº 56/2016)
• Código de Ética e Disciplina da OAB — Resolução CFOAB nº 02/2015 (arts. 19–20)
• Estatuto da Advocacia e da OAB — Lei nº 8.906/1994
• Decreto nº 8.660/2016 — Convenção da Apostila da Haia
• Decreto nº 93.240/1986 — documentos para a escritura pública relativa a imóveis (art. 1º, IV)
• Instrução Normativa RFB nº 2.236/2024 — atualização anual do CPF de estrangeiro com endereço no exterior
• Resolução CNJ nº 228/2016 — aplicação da Convenção da Apostila no Brasil
• Lei nº 14.195/2021 — tradutores e intérpretes públicos (arts. 22–34)
• Lei nº 6.015/1973 — Registros Públicos (art. 129)
• LINDB — Decreto-Lei nº 4.657/1942 (art. 18: atos notariais e de registro civil praticados por autoridades consulares brasileiras para brasileiros no exterior)
• Itamaraty — serviços consulares: procurações e atos notariais
• Receita Federal — CPF para residentes no exterior
• HCCH — Apostille Convention status table

---

This guide is for informational and educational purposes only, in line with Provimento No. 205/2021 of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB). It is not legal advice, an opinion, or an offer of services, does not refer to any specific case, and does not guarantee any result. It describes Brazilian law and practice; references to the law, consular practice or apostille procedures of other countries are factual context only and are not advice on that law. Whether one attorney may act for all the heirs in a given estate depends on facts we cannot assess from a webpage, including the existence of conflicting interests; the availability of consular, apostille and e-Notariado paths depends on each heir’s nationality, location and documents and changes over time. Rules and provisions are cited as of August 2026; changes after that date are not reflected. Each situation requires individual analysis by a licensed attorney. Last updated August 2026.