Integrity
We tell you what the process truly requires, even when it is not what you hoped to hear.
About the firm
Built to protect what you have achieved, and to take it further.
Tobias Estate & Legacy Strategy is an advisory firm based in Orlando, Florida, dedicated to family businesses, multinational groups and the families and professionals building their future in the United States.
Our story
The firm was born from years of working with Brazilian families on the most delicate questions of family, succession and wealth. Time and again, the same families began to look to the United States: a child studying abroad, a business opening a U.S. branch, a professional with a career that deserved international recognition.
They needed more than a visa checklist. They needed someone who could see the whole picture: the pathway, the evidence, the family, the assets and the legacy. Tobias Estate & Legacy Strategy was created to be that partner.
Over the years, one pattern kept repeating itself: the companies at risk were rarely the ones without a market. They were the ones without rules for succession, ownership and disagreement. That is why the governance of family businesses became the center of our work.
Our mission
To reduce the number of family businesses in the United States that close because of family disagreements rather than business reasons, preserving the jobs, the communities and the economic contribution these companies sustain across generations.
What guides us
Rigor
Every recommendation rests on your documented record and on published requirements.
Discretion
Your story, your family and your assets are treated with absolute confidentiality.
Continuity
We think in generations, not in single transactions.
Founder
Vanessa Fernandes Tobias
Founder and Principal Advisor
Vanessa has dedicated more than a decade to family, succession and wealth planning matters in Brazil, advising business families, rural producers and investors on the protection and transfer of their assets.
She holds a law degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás (PUC Goiás), a postgraduate degree in Real Estate Law and an MBA in Family Law, Succession and Estate Planning, and has completed specialized training in the EB-2 NIW pathway.
She founded Tobias Estate & Legacy Strategy to bring the same depth of planning to families and professionals whose next chapter is in the United States.
Credentials and recognition
- Member of the Brazilian Bar Association, Goiás Section (OAB/GO 48.162)
- Member of the Brazilian Institute of Family Law (IBDFAM)
- Member of the OAB/GO Commissions on Family Law, International Relations, and Family Holdings and Estate Planning
- Latin American Quality Excellence in Law Awards: Silver (2022) and Gold (2026)
- Recognized among the Most Admired in Law, Family and Succession, six consecutive years
- Speaker at OAB/GO events and instructor at ESAGO
Vanessa is admitted to practice law in Brazil only. She is not licensed to practice law in the United States, and Tobias Estate & Legacy Strategy does not provide U.S. legal advice.