Wealth Managers & Trustees

Individuals and families have long relied on the professionals of Hemenway & Barnes to preserve and enhance their wealth through sound trust management. Our role goes far beyond that of an investment advisor, financial planner and, indeed, beyond the role typically played by a lawyer. We invest the time it takes to understand your needs, earn your trust and see the whole picture. We anticipate your needs and deliver counsel and guidance with an independent and experienced point of view, and help you move forward with assurance.

Working with the investment professionals at Hemenway Trust Company, a New Hampshire based private trust company, we manage the full range of client assets, including retirement accounts, endowments, and alternative assets. Coupled with sophisticated estate and tax planning, charitable planning and family office services, Hemenway & Barnes offers a one-stop, one-call solution to help you simplify the complexities of managing your wealth.

We invite you to learn more about our services:

Wealth managers play an essential role in helping individuals and families manage complex investments across multiple asset classes while taking a holistic approach, inclusive of estate and tax planning, charitable giving, real estate and business planning, and client’s individual needs.

In this role, Hemenway & Barnes partners often serve as trustees entrusted with 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, bookkeeping and reporting.

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

Each Hemenway & Barnes lawyer who serves as a fiduciary does so in his or her individual capacity. This allows us to provide a highly personal level of fiduciary service for clients who trust our judgment and rely on our counsel. The firm itself does not serve as a fiduciary. As lawyers and as trustees, we concentrate in areas that relate directly to our fiduciary practice. These include the law of trusts, sophisticated estate and charitable planning, taxation, real estate, business planning, probate law and estate settlement. The knowledge, experience and judgment that are the hallmark of a good lawyer are equally important to the role of a wealth manager. In serving as professional fiduciaries, we carry on a tradition that remains an essential element of our practice at Hemenway & Barnes today.

Hemenway & Barnes invests client assets in individually managed trust accounts matched to client goals and needs. When the relationship is established your trustee will meet with you to ascertain your financial needs, investment objectives and appetite for risk. Together you will develop an asset allocation and investment strategy designed to meet your objectives.

Through our collaborative and personal approach, clients enjoy the benefit of working directly with Hemenway & Barnes' partners who serve as legal advisors and trustees while the professional team at Hemenway Trust Company, a New Hampshire based private trust company, advises on investment management strategies. As of December 31, 2025, Hemenway & Barnes LLP, together with Hemenway Trust Company, had fiduciary responsibility for over $9 billion of client assets. With no products or investment funds to sell, we have the independence to do what’s best for our clients.

Learn more about our approach to trust investment management.

Hemenway & Barnes has a large in-house trust and tax 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.

Additionally, we can offer household management services, including bill paying, budgeting and cash flow analysis, hiring and managing contractors and household staff.

Hemenway & Barnes also offers experienced personnel to facilitate the administration of estates. We attend to all aspects of the settlement of an estate, including supervision of probate proceedings, disposition of real estate and other assets and preparation of estate tax returns. In many cases, we are asked to serve as executors of our clients' estates and to bring to bear the knowledge of their family and financial circumstances that we have acquired over the years.

The breadth and depth of services offered and the continuity of personal contact, combined with the fiduciary, legal, investment and tax knowledge and experience that we bring to the service of our clients, distinguish Hemenway & Barnes from other private fiduciary firms.

Team Spotlights

Michael J. Puzo

Michael J. Puzo concentrates on wealth management, primarily through serving as a trustee of private trusts and charitable foundations. He also advises individuals and families on complex estate planning, charitable giving and a host of personal issues.

Dennis R. Delaney

Dennis Delaney is a partner and the chair of the Family Office Services Group. He has more than 25 years of experience serving high net worth clients as a family wealth advisor, personal trustee, executor, and trusted advisor.

Stephen W. Kidder

Stephen W. Kidder concentrates his practice in the areas of taxation and professional fiduciary services.

Nancy E. Dempze

Nancy Dempze serves as a professional trustee, executor and estate planner for individuals and families.

Kurt F. Somerville

Kurt F. Somerville has more than 30 years of experience advising families and individuals on trust and estate matters. As a lawyer and trustee, Kurt works with clients to preserve, enhance, and transfer family wealth.

Learn More About Our Services

Estate & Tax Planning
Our comprehensive approach is flexible, so it's tailored to each client’s unique financial situation, family, goals, values, and more.
Trust & Estate Administration
Our dedicated team of trust, estate and tax professionals efficiently handles all aspects of trust administration and probate work.
Family Office
There is no “one size fits all” family office. We place a high value on getting to know each family and working with you to align the services we provide to your goals.
Philanthropic Advisory
We offer a full range of philanthropic advisory and grant-making services to private foundations, trusts, individuals, families, and other entities.

Our Trust Investment Approach

Our approach to investing trust assets is based on several over-arching principles. The first is to understand your objectives, financial needs and tolerance for risk. Second, because we have no products to sell, we are free of constraints and aim to invest in the best opportunities. Third, our investment horizon is long term.

Why a Trust?

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.

Welcome to Your Family Office

We’ll take care of everything – from the forest to the trees.

Our family office practice offers you seasoned professionals and flexible support in caring for the needs of your family. Whether you seek one targeted solution or a broader scope of advice, we offer customized insights, specifically tailored to the unique dynamics of your family.

Ready to get started?
Contact us to discuss our comprehensive approach to financial, estate and tax planning.
Contact a Wealth Manager