Legal Services
Rofe + Co
A specialist estate planning practice for how wealth moves through life, on death, and across generations.
Rofe + Co is a private client legal practice.
Founded and led by Rachael Rofe.
We advise individuals, families and their advisers on how wealth moves between generations - lifetime giving, estate planning, family governance and philanthropic structuring - designed as a single strategy rather than delivered as separate transactions.
Most estate planning stops at the documents. Our practice begins there. We work with clients whose questions are not only what to leave, but how. Not only how much, but to whom, when, and for what purpose.
Offices at 39 Martin Place, Sydney and 55 Collins Street, Melbourne. Sydney 02 8912 4168. Melbourne 03 7057 2782. We advise nationally - and work alongside the financial advisers, accountants and trustees who sit at the centre of each family's advisory ecosystem.
Services
What we advise on
01
Giving while living
Structuring the movement of wealth to family and community during life.
To family
- Gifts
- Loan agreements
- Deeds of gift
- Structured family transfers
- Equalisation arrangements
To community
- Private giving funds
- Public giving funds
- Community charity trusts
- Direct giving
Personal authority
- Enduring powers of attorney
- Advance care directives
02
Giving on death
Tax-aware, asset-protective and values-aligned estate planning.
Core estate planning
- Wills
- Testamentary trusts
- Letters of wishes
- Executor guidance
Succession and control
- Binding death benefit nominations
- Superannuation death benefit strategies
- Trustee succession
- Business succession
03
Values & stewardship
Preparing people, not just structures.
Family governance
- Family governance frameworks
- Family constitutions
- Succession planning
Continuity
- Intergenerational wealth conversations
- Philanthropic strategy
- Trustee education and guidance
In practice
What working with us looks like
We meet at our office, your home, or your adviser's office. Whichever suits you.
There is nothing to prepare. No fact finders, no forms before we meet. We ask what we need to know during the appointment.
Most first appointments take about an hour. You leave with a clear picture of what your estate plan needs, and we follow with a fixed quote. Once you accept it, we book the signing meeting. You know the cost, the steps and the timeframe from day one.
How we work
The goal is not simply a document. It is clarity of purpose, with a strategy built to last.
We work across all dimensions of wealth transfer - lifetime giving to family, structured philanthropy, and testamentary planning - as a single integrated strategy. The sequence of work is consistent across engagements.
Stewardship
Clarify what your wealth is for
Before any structure is designed, we spend time understanding what you want your wealth to do - for your family, for your community, across your lifetime and beyond it. This is a facilitated process, not a form to fill in. Where it makes sense, we include adult children and other family members.
The outcome of this stage is clarity: a shared understanding of your intentions for succession, support and stewardship.
What this typically involves
Design
Design a structure that protects and performs
Once your intentions are clear, we design the legal and tax framework to give them effect - protecting assets, minimising tax, and creating the right instruments for each domain of wealth transfer. This means mapping how decisions made during your lifetime and on your death work together as a single, coordinated plan.
The structure we design is asset-protective, tax-effective, and built around your family's actual circumstances, not a standard template.
What this typically involves
Implementation
Put it in place with legal precision
The strategy is only as strong as the documents that give it legal force. We draft every instrument - wills, testamentary trusts, enduring powers of attorney, family trust succession arrangements, philanthropic vehicles, family governance documents - to the precision specialist legal counsel requires.
We coordinate with your financial advisers and, where relevant, with structured giving service providers, so every element of the plan aligns.
What this typically involves
The outcome
Not just a set of documents. A clear, durable framework for protecting what you have built - and passing on not just assets, but the judgement that allowed them to be built.
What clients say
Words from those we have worked with.
We had advisers. We had accountants. But nobody had helped us think clearly about what we actually wanted to happen - across the family, including the giving. Rachael at Rofe + Co did that, and then put structures around it that we trust.
David & Caroline, Sydney
I was not referred to Rachael - I found her through an article she had written. The first conversation was enough to know this was different from any legal advice I had received before. She understood what we were trying to do before we had fully articulated it ourselves.
Margaret, Melbourne
The outcome was a plan that our children actually understand and feel a part of. That matters more than any of the legal structures underneath it, though those are precisely right too.
A family office client, NSW
Frequently asked questions
Questions clients ask before getting in touch.
Ready to begin
The right plan starts with the right conversation.
A short call is usually all it takes to understand whether our work is well suited to your situation and family. There is no obligation, nothing to prepare, and you will have a fixed quote before you commit to anything.