Legal Services for Americans Retiring in Spain

Helping Americans build a legally secure retirement in Spain.

Most Americans planning a retirement in Spain end up with two sets of advisers who never speak to each other. A CPA or wealth manager in the United States who understands the accounts but cannot act in Spain. And, eventually, whoever happens to be at the notary on the day of the purchase.

The decisions that actually determine how your retirement turns out — when you become a Spanish tax resident, whose name the property goes into, what happens to your spouse, who can sign for you if you cannot — sit in the gap between those two.

CostaLuz Lawyers coordinates the Spanish legal, property, tax and estate-planning side of your retirement, working with your US advisers where necessary.

Who we are

CostaLuz Lawyers is an independent Spanish law firm, established in 2006 and based in Algeciras, Cádiz. Our lead lawyer is María Luisa de Castro, a Spanish property, immigration and tax lawyer registered with the Ilustre Colegio de Abogados de Cádiz under number 2745.

We are Spanish lawyers. We do not provide United States legal or tax advice, and where a US-licensed professional is required we will tell you so rather than work around it.

Two things about how we practice are worth stating up front, because they are unusual and because they matter to an American buyer.

We act only for the buyer. Since the 2008 property crisis, our practice has been built on independent buyer-side representation and on recovering payments made to developers under off-plan bank guarantees. We do not take instructions from the estate agent or the developer on a purchase where we act for you.

We work in English and Spanish. All consultations and correspondence are conducted in those two languages.

What Americans actually need coordinated

These are not separate errands. Each one constrains the others, which is why running them through separate providers produces plans that contradict themselves.

• Residence and immigration — the route, the consulate, the renewal conditions.
• Tax residency — when it begins, what triggers it, and what it changes.
• Spanish taxation of your income and assets once it does.
• Coordination with your US tax advisers, so that relief is claimed correctly in both systems.
• Buying or renting a home, with independent representation.
• Independent review of purchase contracts, including new-build and off-plan.
• Spanish wills and international succession, coordinated with your US estate documents.
• Preventive powers of attorney and planning for loss of capacity.
• Protecting your spouse or partner, which in Spain is not automatic.
• Estate and asset planning across two jurisdictions.

Three ways we work with American clients

1. US–Spain Retirement Legal Roadmap

A planning consultation that produces a dated sequence of decisions.

For Americans twelve to twenty-four months out who know they want to do this properly but do not know what has to happen in what order.

We work through your relocation objectives and intended date, family composition, income sources and how each is treated in Spain, your assets, your housing intention, your healthcare route and your residence route. We then identify the tax and succession matters that require individual analysis, and set out the decisions that must be made before you move, with the deadlines attached.

What it is not: it is not a full tax opinion, not property due diligence, and not the drafting of your will. A planning consultation identifies and sequences; it does not automatically produce a complete report. Where deeper work is needed we will say so and scope it separately.

Suited to: Social Security, a pension, IRA, Roth or 401(k) accounts, savings, a US home and a future Spanish one. This is not a service reserved for large estates.

2. Retirement Home Legal Package

Independent legal representation for American buyers.

Americans arrive with US conveyancing assumptions — title insurance, escrow, a realtor who handles everything — none of which exist in Spain in the form you expect. The Spanish system puts far more weight on what your own lawyer verifies before you sign.

We handle your NIE; Land Registry and urbanistic checks; charges, debts and community status; review and negotiation of the reservation and arras contracts; the protections that apply to new-build and off-plan purchases, including bank guarantees; the notary and completion; taxes and costs; the ownership structure decision; a power of attorney where you cannot travel; and the coordination of how title is held with your Spanish will and the protection of your spouse.

What it is not: we are not mortgage brokers, we do not carry out the survey or valuation, we do not search for the property, and we do not advise on the US tax consequences of the purchase.

3. Pre-Residency Legal and Tax Review

A confidential review in the year before you move.

For Americans relocating with investment portfolios, property in more than one jurisdiction, substantial retirement accounts, trusts, LLCs, company interests or complex succession arrangements.

The reason this service exists is a matter of timing rather than complexity: most of the value is decided by what happens before Spanish tax residency begins. Afterwards, a large part of the option set has closed.

We determine the residency commencement date and what drives it; map exposure to Spanish wealth taxation; analyze how Spain treats your trusts and LLCs, which is frequently not how the United States treats them; set out Spanish reporting obligations alongside your US ones; analyze succession across both estates including choice of law; address the protection of your spouse and descendants; and identify what should be decided before arrival. We coordinate this work with your CPA, US tax attorney and financial adviser.

What it is not: we do not give United States tax advice, prepare US filings, draft US estate documents or advise on investments — each of those requires a US-licensed professional. We do not propose structures for the purpose of reducing tax, and we do not promise tax savings. What we provide is an accurate account of the Spanish consequences of what you already have, in time for you to act on it.

Why timing is the whole game

Three specific points, each verifiable, that decide more outcomes than anything else:

The visa now commits you to tax residency. Under the immigration regulation in force since 20 May 2025, renewing a non-lucrative residence permit requires more than 183 days of real and effective residence in Spain in the calendar year. From the first renewal, the presence that keeps your permit alive is the same presence that establishes Spanish tax residency. The separation between “immigration residency” and “tax residency” that much US-facing content still relies on does not survive that. See our guide to tax residency in Spain.

Year one has no public healthcare route. Medicare does not provide ordinary coverage in Spain, and Spain’s public-system buy-in requires a year of prior residence. Private insurance is both the visa condition and the year-one answer. We set this out in Medicare and healthcare in Spain.

Your US estate plan may not do in Spain what it does at home. Spain has not ratified the 1985 Hague Convention on trusts and does not recognize the trust as an institution. A US estate plan built on a revocable trust can behave very differently once you are Spanish tax resident. See does an Anglo-American trust work for Spanish property and owning Spanish property through a US LLC.

Where we work

We are based in Algeciras, in the province of Cádiz, and we act across Spain. Our home ground is the Campo de Gibraltar and the Costa de la Luz — Vejer, Conil, Tarifa, Sotogrande, Alcaidesa — a stretch of Atlantic coast that remains substantially less crowded, and less expensive, than the Costa del Sol an hour east. Our guide to retirement on the Costa de la Luz sets out why a number of our American clients end up here.

How to start

For planning and property matters, tell us about your expected retirement income, healthcare plans, housing preferences and family circumstances. Write to marialuisa@costaluzlawyers.es, or book a planning consultation at calendly.com/marialuisa-b4a.

For a Pre-Residency Review, contact us by email first. Complex tax, immigration and asset matters are not suited to an automatic free assessment, and we would rather understand the shape of your situation before either of us commits time to it.

If you are already in the zone and need same-day contact, our client line is +34 919 499 342 (English and Spanish).

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a Spanish lawyer if I already have a CPA in the United States?

Almost certainly, and the two roles do not overlap. A US CPA advises on your United States position and prepares your US filings. They cannot appear before a Spanish notary, run a Land Registry search, draft a Spanish will, grant a Spanish power of attorney or represent you in a Spanish transaction. Conversely, we do not provide US tax advice. The work that goes wrong is usually the work in between, which is why we coordinate directly with your US advisers rather than around them.

Is international planning only worth it for wealthy retirees?

No. The decisions that most often cost ordinary retirees money are timing decisions — when tax residency begins, when a distribution is taken, whose name a property goes into, whether a Spanish will exists — and those apply to someone with Social Security, a pension and one property just as much as to a large estate. Complexity changes the depth of the analysis, not whether it is needed.

Can you represent me if I am buying from a developer or through an estate agent?

Yes, and we act only for you. We do not take instructions from the developer or the agent on a purchase where we represent the buyer. Since the 2008 property crisis our practice has centered on independent buyer-side representation and on recovering advance payments made in off-plan purchases, which is precisely the situation in which a shared or agent-appointed lawyer serves a buyer least well.

When should I contact you — before or after I apply for the visa?

Before, and ideally twelve to twenty-four months ahead. The visa route you choose has tax consequences, the renewal conditions have tax consequences, and both are far easier to plan for than to unwind. Clients who contact us after becoming Spanish tax resident frequently find that the most valuable options closed on a date that had already passed when they first called.

Do you provide advice in languages other than English and Spanish?

No. All consultations, correspondence and documents are handled in English and Spanish only. If a document is issued in another language, it will normally need an official translation before it can be used in a Spanish procedure, and we will tell you when that applies and what standard of translation is required. Where a client is more comfortable in a third language, we ask that a family member or an independent interpreter attends, because we will not conduct advice in a language we cannot guarantee across the whole file.

This page describes services provided by CostaLuz Lawyers, a Spanish law firm. It is general information about Spanish law and is not legal advice for any particular transaction. Whether, and how, the matters described here apply depends on your own circumstances, your residency status and your documentation. Nothing here is United States legal or tax advice; where a US-licensed professional is required, we will say so. For advice on your own situation, contact CostaLuz Lawyers.

Reviewed by María Luisa de Castro, ICA Cádiz nº 2745.

AI Disclosure: this article was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by a Spanish-qualified lawyer at CostaLuz Lawyers before publication.