Professional Trustees

Trusts make sense now more than ever. Regardless of your family history, business, or personal interests, trusts are widely used and valued for their outstanding benefits: flexibility, privacy, asset protection and wealth preservation and transfer.

Why Hemenway & Barnes?

At Hemenway & Barnes, trustee service is a critical component of our firm’s work and lies at the heart of all we do. For generations, clients and their families have turned to the partners of Hemenway & Barnes to serve as trustees.

Choosing the right trustee can make all the difference for you, your family and your shared financial future. A good trustee will have not only the experience and judgment to make sound investment decisions that build and preserve real wealth, he or she will always keep your best interests and those of your family at the forefront.

Hemenway & Barnes trustees invest the time it takes to understand your needs, earn your trust and master the complex laws that affect a trusteeship. Our trustee work is not about selling products or building a volume practice. Our role goes far beyond that of an investment advisor, financial planner and, indeed, beyond the role typically played by a lawyer.

Families and individuals often rely on our firm as a sounding board for a range of questions and concerns. Our experience shows these to be broad, deep and often intensely personal. This work is uniquely individual and hands-on.

Hemenway & Barnes has a large in-house trust department that ensures that clients receive reliable and efficient safekeeping of assets, collection and distribution of income, processing of transactions, generation of reports and statements, and preparation of income tax returns for trust and estate accounts.

What is a trustee and what is a trustee’s role?

The trustee plays an essential role in carrying out the purpose of a trust, ensuring that your goals are faithfully observed, year after year, and often, generation after generation. A trustee’s role will be as varied as the goals of the trust and will encompass building a personal relationship with the beneficiaries, addressing their needs, safeguarding and distributing assets, managing investments, planning for taxes, and providing administrative support, such as bill paying, bookkeeping and reporting.

Beyond these critical financial and legal responsibilities, an experienced trustee will understand the personal, emotional, and psychological aspects of wealth and the impact that wealth can have on your family.

What is a trust?

At its simplest, a trust allows you to put assets into the care of a trustee who will hold these assets for the benefit of one or more beneficiaries, typically family members and often, charities. A trust can be a sophisticated instrument designed to accomplish a host of estate planning and wealth transfer objectives, providing as much control, or as little, as desired. A trust also can be created to address a specific need, such as ensuring the care of an aging parent or a child with special needs.

In other words, a well-designed trust will be custom-tailored to address your specific needs and goals.