How to Choose an Act 60 Attorney in Puerto Rico

What a licensed Puerto Rico attorney does that a consultant cannot, the questions worth asking before you sign, and how to read a fee quote.

← Back to Resources

By Hans E. Riefkohl, Riefkohl Law • Last reviewed September 16, 2026

The short answer

Most people shopping for Act 60 help are actually shopping in three different markets at once: law firms, CPA firms, and relocation consultancies. They do not do the same work, they are not held to the same duties, and only one of them can give you legal advice or execute the instruments Puerto Rico law requires.

A good selection process comes down to four checks:

Is the person advising you admitted to the Puerto Rico bar? Legal advice on Puerto Rico law can only come from a licensed Puerto Rico attorney.
Who will sign the deed? In Puerto Rico, a public deed (escritura pública) must be executed before a notario público, and in this jurisdiction a notary is by definition an attorney admitted to the Puerto Rico bar. If your plan involves a trust or a real property transfer, this is not optional.
Is the fee in writing, with the exclusions named? A number without a scope is not a quote.
Who owns the conflict? If the firm advising you on residency also earns a commission when you buy a house or sign a relocation package, you should know that before you take the advice.

Want the substance of Act 60 rather than the selection process?

Start with our Act 60 Resource Center for the decree types, requirements and deadlines, or the Act 60 tax incentives page for the rates and the filing deadline.

Book a Free Strategy Call

1. Lawyers, CPAs and consultants are not interchangeable

All three can be worth paying. They are worth paying for different things, and problems usually start when one is bought in place of another.

What requires a Puerto Rico attorney

Advice on what Puerto Rico law requires of you, and on the consequences if you fall short.
Drafting and executing the escritura pública for a trust, and the deed for any transfer of Puerto Rico real property. This must happen before a Puerto Rico notary, who is an attorney.
Structuring the entity that will hold the decree, and the shareholder or member agreements that govern it.
Estate planning that has to survive Puerto Rico’s forced-heirship rules. See forced heirs and the legítima — this is the rule mainland plans most often collide with.
Attorney-client privilege over the advice itself. A CPA’s workpapers, emails and internal memos are generally discoverable. Advice from counsel on residency compliance, income sourcing and entity structuring is privileged. Where an income stream’s sourcing is genuinely arguable, that distinction is the difference between protected counsel and evidence.
Representing you if the Department of Economic Development and Commerce (DDEC) questions or moves to revoke a decree, and representation before the IRS or the U.S. Tax Court if residency or sourcing is challenged.

What a CPA does better

Preparing and filing the Puerto Rico and federal returns, and reconciling the two.
Bookkeeping, payroll and the accounting records your annual reports draw on.
Modelling the actual tax outcome of a structure a lawyer has proposed.

The strongest Act 60 outcomes we see involve both, talking to each other. If a provider tells you that you do not need the other one, treat that as information about the provider.

What a relocation consultancy does

Logistics: schools, shipping, mailbox addresses, day-count tracking, introductions. Useful work, and none of it is legal advice. Read the engagement terms to see where the consultancy stops and where it refers out.

2. Nine questions to ask before you engage anyone

Are you admitted to the Puerto Rico bar, and are you a notary? Ask for the bar number. Admission is public and verifiable.
Who, specifically, will do my work? Named people, not a brand.
What is the flat fee, and what is deliberately outside it? Notarial fees, registry charges and government filing fees are third-party costs in almost every quote. So is tax advice, usually.
Who prepares my annual compliance filings, and is that inside the fee or billed later? The decree is the beginning of the obligation, not the end of it.
What happens to my decree if I am audited or my residency is questioned? Ask what representation costs and whether the firm does that work at all.
How will you document bona fide residency for me? The tests are specific. See bona fide residency in Puerto Rico.
Do you earn anything if I buy property, sign a relocation package, or use a particular service provider? A yes is not disqualifying. A vague answer is.
What is your estate-planning plan for my Puerto Rico assets? An Act 60 decree does nothing about forced heirship, and a mainland revocable trust does not automatically work here. Note that Act 153-2026 takes effect on January 30, 2027; until then a revocable trust is available in Puerto Rico only to Individual Resident Investor decree holders.
Will you put the answers to these questions in the engagement letter?

Bring this list to any firm, including ours.

A 30-minute call is enough to answer all nine for your situation, at no cost.

Book a Free Strategy Call

3. How to read a fee quote

Act 60 work is quotable in advance, and the firms that will not quote it usually have a reason. Three models are common:

Flat fee per deliverable. Cost certainty before the work starts. Ask what triggers a new fee.
Hourly. Appropriate for genuinely unpredictable disputes and audit defence; a poor fit for a decree application, which is a known process.
Monthly subscription. Predictable, but check what happens to your files and filings if you stop paying, and whether the monthly fee covers the annual report.

For reference, Riefkohl Law’s Act 60 engagements start at a flat $1,700, quoted in writing before any work begins. That figure excludes U.S. residency and income-sourcing tax advice, which is scoped and quoted separately, and it excludes government filing fees paid to DDEC. The prices shown are representative examples that reflect what many engagements look like; the fee for each matter is determined based on your specific circumstances. Trust work is priced separately — see what a Puerto Rico trust costs.

4. Red flags

A guaranteed decree. No one can guarantee a DDEC grant. Approval is discretionary and conditioned on what you actually do after it is issued.
“Audit-proof.” No structure is audit-proof. Well-documented is the achievable goal.
Urgency arithmetic with no source. Deadlines in this area are real — the December 31, 2026 filing date matters, and so does January 30, 2027 for trusts — but a number attached to your monthly cost of waiting, with no computation behind it, is a sales device.
No written scope. If the exclusions are not in writing, they will be discovered later, at your expense.
No Puerto Rico attorney anywhere in the chain. Ask who signs the deed. If nobody can answer, the plan is incomplete.
Advice to skip the estate plan. Forced heirship applies to Puerto Rico domiciliaries regardless of the decree.

5. A short due-diligence checklist

Confirm Puerto Rico bar admission, and notary status if a deed is involved.
Get the fee, the exclusions and the deliverables in one written document.
Confirm in writing who files the annual report, and when.
Ask for the conflict disclosure in writing.
Ask which parts of the work are legal advice and which are tax advice, and who is responsible for each.
Ask what the plan does about forced heirship and about Act 153-2026.
Ask what happens if DDEC questions the decree.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need an attorney for Act 60, or is a CPA enough?

You need both for most decrees, and they are not substitutes. Only a Puerto Rico attorney can advise you on Puerto Rico law, structure the holding entity, and execute the public deed a trust or a real property transfer requires — in Puerto Rico the notary who executes that deed must be an attorney admitted to the bar. A CPA prepares and files the returns and models the tax outcome. Engaging only a CPA tends to leave the legal instruments and the estate plan undone; engaging only a lawyer tends to leave the filings unreconciled.

How much should an Act 60 attorney cost in Puerto Rico?

Ask for a flat fee in writing and for the exclusions by name. Riefkohl Law’s Act 60 engagements start at a flat $1,700, excluding U.S. residency and income-sourcing tax advice, which is scoped separately, and excluding DDEC filing fees. The prices shown are representative examples that reflect what many engagements look like; the fee for each matter is determined based on your specific circumstances.

Can a mainland U.S. lawyer handle my Act 60 decree?

Not on their own. Puerto Rico is a separate jurisdiction with its own bar, its own civil-law code and a notarial system with no mainland equivalent. A mainland attorney can and often should stay involved on U.S. federal tax and on your existing estate plan, but the Puerto Rico instruments require Puerto Rico counsel.

What should I ask an Act 60 attorney in the first call?

Bar admission and notary status; who does the work; the flat fee and its exclusions; who prepares the annual compliance filings; what representation costs if the decree is questioned; how bona fide residency will be documented; any commission or referral interest the firm holds; and what the plan does about forced heirship and about Act 153-2026, which takes effect January 30, 2027.

Does an Act 60 decree take care of my estate plan?

No. The decree addresses taxation. Puerto Rico’s forced-heirship rules under the Civil Code reserve half of the estate for forced heirs, and that applies to Puerto Rico domiciliaries whether or not they hold a decree. A mainland revocable trust does not automatically carry over, and until Act 153-2026 takes effect on January 30, 2027 a revocable trust is available in Puerto Rico only to Individual Resident Investor decree holders.