Pensions and Social Security

Barbieri Advogados acts in pensions and social-security law in a practice that combines benefit planning, contribution litigation and the structuring of pension and social-security strategies in corporate operations and individual transitions. The practice operates at a moment of consolidation of the 2019 Pension Reform (Emenda Constitucional nº 103/2019), which redefined well-established premises of Regime Geral de Previdência Social (the General Social-Security Regime, the RGPS — applicable to private-sector workers) and Regime Próprio de Previdência Social (the Public-Sector Pension Regime, the RPPS — applicable to civil servants), with changes in retirement requirements, transitional rules, contribution rates and the framework for pension calculation. The firm guides clients through this transition, with a rigorous technical reading of the changes and strategies calibrated to each client’s specific contribution and benefit profile.

The practice is structured around three main pillars. In benefit planning and entitlement, the firm acts on the analysis of Cadastro Nacional de Informações Sociais (the Brazilian National Register of Social Information, the CNIS) and pension records, on the strategic structuring of retirement applications — by length of contribution, by age, special retirement, retirement on grounds of disability — on the recovery of contribution time, and on the registration and revision of benefits where calculation discrepancies are identified. In pension and social-security litigation, the firm acts on the contestation of administrative decisions issued by Instituto Nacional do Seguro Social (the Brazilian National Social Security Institute, the INSS), on actions for the granting and revision of benefits, on actions seeking the recognition of contribution time not registered in the CNIS, and on appeals before the Conselho de Recursos da Previdência Social (the Social Security Appeals Board) and the courts. In employer-side social-security advisory work, the firm acts on the analysis of social-security obligations of employers, on the recovery of social-security credits, on the defence in social-security tax assessments and in proceedings before CARF (the Federal Administrative Tax Tribunal) on social-security matters, and on the structuring of practices to mitigate exposure in social-security inspections — an area where the firm’s integrated accounting-legal expertise confers a technical edge in contribution analysis and in the technical defence of social-security claims.

The practice works in close coordination with Wealth and Succession on pension planning integrated with succession planning, with Tax on social-security contributions in the context of integrated tax planning, with Employment on individual benefit matters arising from employment relationships, and with Public Law on civil service matters that give rise to pension and social-security questions.