The Boston Trustee: The Laws, Lives, and Legacy of a Vital Institution

The history of a unique Boston institution: the men and women who serve as individual professional trustees, who control billions of dollars of assets, who have provided advice and counsel for generations of families, and who are universally known as Boston Trustees.

This quiet and discrete legal service had its roots in the early nineteenth century, when Boston’s closely interconnected social and cultural elite faced the problem of how to pass on massive new wealth in a predictable, safe, and prudent way. Today, the practice remains alive and well, a major, and very profitable, component of almost every Boston law firm, bank and trust office.

The book also answers questions about inheritances governed by trust law and by trustee participation. The authors guide the reader through the legal jargon to help understand trusts and the role of the trustee with actual examples of trusts and trust language. It is essential reading for anyone interested both in understanding trusts and in the evolution of Boston as a financial and regional hub, a city that not only knew how to make money but also how to preserve it.