Massive neutrinos and leptonic mixings have provided the first evidence of flavor violation in the lepton sector, opening a unique gateway to many new phenomena, with an impact ranging from low-energy observables to colliders, as well as cosmology and astroparticle physics. If observed, charged lepton flavor violation (cLFV) is a clear sign of New Physics - beyond the Standard Mode (SM) minimally extended to accommodate neutrino oscillation data. We begin by a brief overview of the experimental status of cLFV (and other high-intensity observables) searches and the prospects for upcoming years. We then consider extensions of the SM which could potentially give rise to observable cLFV signals: following a model-independent discussion, we comment on the prospects of several New Physics models regarding cLFV, with a particular emphasis on low-energy seesaw mechanisms.