Welcome to Helen Russo Advisory

Family Wealth Advisor

When life changes, money changes too

I work with people at moments when life has shifted - and money suddenly carries more weight than numbers alone.

I’m a Family Wealth Advisor who helps farming families and women of wealth navigate major financial transitions, including intergenerational wealth transfer, inheritance, succession, divorce, retirement, and widowhood. In these moments, financial decisions are rarely just technical. They go to the core of the person, touching responsibility, identity, family roles, and legacy.

This is the work I’ve spent my career doing - helping people think clearly and act wisely when timing, emotion, and complexity are all present at once.

Insights

What the law can't fix in a family inheritance dispute

Over the years, I've noticed something about families who end up fighting over money. The fight is almost never really about the money. It's about power. Control. Legacy. Who was chosen, who Read more

The gap between intention and action

There is a gap that shows up again and again in families who are thinking about succession. I learned the name for it recently, sitting in on a session with Dr Dennis Jaffe, one of the leadingRead more

To the fathers and the men who hold families together

Father's Day has me thinking about the steadiness some men bring to a family. Not always loud about it, not looking for thanks, just showing up year after year and doing the work that holdsRead more

The discipline of staying sharp

In nearly three decades of advising families, I have learned something. The moment you think you have seen it all is usually the moment before a family proves you wrong. Every family carries its ownRead more

What a musical about death taught me about family

A few months ago I booked tickets to see Beetlejuice the musical. Not exactly typical reading material for an advisor, I know. But sitting with that story, a family upended overnight by suddenRead more

Joining Sorella

I am very pleased to share that I have joined Brad Scott as Client Director of Sorella, a specialist division within EWM Group dedicated to women of influence, wealth, and legacy. Over the years,Read more

The Strength That Learns to Stand Alone

Recently I met Janet, someone who was sharp, capable, and almost impossible to read. She was not overwhelmed. She was not looking for reassurance. She simply worked through her financial positionRead more

My Nonna’s kitchen

Some of my earliest memories are not of classrooms or playgrounds. They are of a kitchen table. My Nonna lived in the centre of town in far north Queensland, in a sugar cane community whereRead more

When memory holds more weight than the numbers

This week I sat with a family who have held the same investment property for 42 years. It hasn't produced a real return in over a decade. When I asked why they were keeping it, the answer wasRead more

Discretionary trust minimum tax changes

On 28 May I joined Kat Feeney on ABC Brisbane alongside Neal Dallas, a lawyer with Business Depot, to talk about something that has been coming up in a number of conversations I am having withRead more

When the ground shifts beneath your financial life

Every so often, something happens in the wider world that causes people to pause and look inward. Not at the headlines themselves, but at their own situation. The 2026 Federal Budget has been one ofRead more

The story beneath the numbers

We are taught to think of money as maths. Add one dollar to another and you have two. Subtract one and you have one. Simple. Clean. Rational. But the longer I sit with people and listen, the moreRead more

The work beneath the surface

With 28+ years working alongside families and individuals, my work sits at the intersection of advocacy, behavioural finance, financial psychology, and financial planning.

I’m particularly interested in what sits beneath the surface of financial decisions:

The unspoken rules within families
The emotional load people carry when roles suddenly shift
The individual and collective beliefs about money that are shaped by family, culture, and generations

These forces shape behaviour. And behaviour shapes outcomes.

My role is not to rush decisions or impose solutions, but to help people slow things down, understand what is really happening, and move forward with clarity and agency.

Family Wealth Advisor

Helping people think clearly and act wisely when timing, emotion, and complexity are all present at once.

Gemminni Pty Ltd t/a Encompass Wealth | ABN 84 163 410 704

Elenara Pty Ltd t/a Helen Russo Advisory | ABN 88 108 702 576

In the spirit of reconciliation we acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

Tel 0417 196 178

P 1300 199 693

Email helen@helenrussoadvisory.com.au

GPO Box 2787 Brisbane Qld 4001

Level 4 260 Queen Street Brisbane Qld 4000

By appointment only