Overview
Insights
News
Education and Credentials
Recognition and Community
Overview
Melissa Rodriguez specializes in providing legal counsel to ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families. Her expertise lies in guiding clients through complex legal matters about their wealth and assets. Melissa offers personalized and comprehensive counseling to her clients in advance of preparing legal documents such as wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, marital agreements, and sophisticated estate planning documents that include dynasty trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs), irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs), grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), lifetime spousal access trusts (SLATs), inter vivos qualified terminable interest trusts (QTIPs), and domestic and offshore asset protection trusts.
Melissa's practice also involves helping clients navigate the intricacies of probate and trust administration. She is empathetic to the fact that these matters can be emotionally charged and legally intricate, and is dedicated to providing thoughtful guidance. Her practice includes personal representative, trustee, and beneficiary representation. Melissa works with clients to assess the merits of potential disputes, identify viable solutions, and explore alternative dispute resolution methods. She also assists clients in modifying, decanting, reforming, and terminating trusts.
In addition to trusts and estates, Melissa has experience in preparing and negotiating comprehensive prenuptial and postnuptial agreements. She specializes in marital agreements for couples with complex marital histories, including second marriages and blended families, and for clients with substantial assets, including real estate holdings, investment accounts, business interests, and significant inheritances or trusts.
Melissa is a state of Florida Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC).
* No aspect of these advertisements has been approved by the highest court of any state. See Awards Methodology.
Insights
Co-author, April 3, 2024, Daily Business Review
"Maven Rising," Maven Leadership Collective
Speaker, November 4, 2022, Maven Leadership Collective
"Tax-Exempt Organizations," Maven Leadership Collective
Speaker, 2019-2020, Maven Leadership Collective
"Domestic Asset Protection Trusts: Key Income and Transfer Tax Implications," Strafford
Speaker, July 15, 2020, Strafford
An Unwavering Result, Third DCA Analyzes Waivers in the Context of the Former Wage Exemption Statute in Castro v. Mercantil Commercebank, N.A
Co-author, June 17, 2020, LISI Asset Protection Planning Newsletter, #407
News
Featured, February 1, 2024, Florida Bar News
Featured, December 22, 2023, Law360 Pulse
Featured, December 19, 2023, Attorney at Law Magazine
Featured, December 19, 2023, Thomson Reuters
Featured, December 18, 2023, Daily Business Review
Education and Credentials
Education
University of Florida, Levin College of Law, L.L.M in Taxation
University of Florida, Levin College of Law, J.D., Certification in Estate Planning
Florida International University, B.A. Accounting
Admissions
State of Florida
Affiliations
American College of Trusts and Estate Counsel, Florida Fellows Institute, Class Member, 2023-2024
American Bar Association, Tax Section, Member
The Florida Bar, Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section, Member; Tax Section, Member; Family Law Section, Member
Miami Dade Bar, Probate and Guardianship Committee, Member
Cuban American Bar Association, Member
Languages
Spanish
Recognition and Community
Recognition
No aspect of these advertisements has been approved by the highest court of any state. See Awards Methodology.
Selected to the list of Ones to Watch for Trusts and Estates in Florida by The Best Lawyers in America (Woodward/White, Inc.), 2024