Multi-generational wealth management from a single office on Beacon Street. Founded in 1981 by Walter Northstead, now stewarded by his daughter Eleanor and a team of five.
My father started Northstead in 1981 because the bank trust departments of Boston had stopped knowing the names of the families they served. Forty-five years later, the same conviction holds: a small firm, owned by the people who run it, with one client list that does not grow much.
We do not advertise. We do not chase scale. The work is patient, the relationships are long, and most of our new families are introduced by an existing one.
Most of our families are in the middle of a multi-generational transition. We sit between the parents who built it and the children who will inherit it. That conversation, not the portfolio, is the work.
Concentrated stock positions, illiquid holdings, family-owned businesses. We work with whatever shape the balance sheet actually is, not the shape an off-the-shelf model expects.
Five partners, no outside owners, succession plan in writing. The firm exists to outlast its current generation. That is the only governance philosophy we have.
Our roster is small and we add one or two families a year. The fastest path is an introduction from an existing client or counsel. If you do not have one, a thoughtful note works.
eleanor@northstead.capital →