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. His practice includes wealth management, estate, financial, and tax planning, and probate matters. He is the former head of the firm's Trust Department and has an active practice serving as a professional fiduciary.

Working with leading charitable trusts and foundations, Kurt advises clients on foundation management and governance. His experience includes grant making, tax reporting, compliance, investment management and philanthropic giving programs. Kurt also works with foundations on strategic planning to ensure their long-term success.

Kurt serves as the Managing Partner of Hemenway & Barnes LLP and as Chairman of the firm’s Management Committee. He is also a Managing Director and Senior Trust Officer at Hemenway Trust Company, a private fiduciary firm based in Salem, New Hampshire.

• Co-Trustee of Jane's Trust, a leading charitable trust in New England, Jane’s Trust Foundation, CHT Foundation, and others
• Co-Trustee of several private family trust complexes, with responsibility for preserving, enhancing and managing wealth for multiple generations of beneficiaries
• Executor and counsel for decedents' estates of varying sizes and degrees of complexity
• Planning for the ownership, management and succession of family vacation properties, including preparation of various trusts, family limited partnerships and limited liability companies, qualified personal residence trusts (QPRT's), and conservation easements
• Administrator of an association of landowners with coastal properties, including common green space, roads and docks
• Co-Trustee of a trust owning islands and an Adirondack camp in upstate New York
• Counsel for numerous family groups, with responsibility for creating and managing comprehensive estate plans for multiple generations
• Representation of estate planning clients with unusual assets, including closely held business, foreign real estate, and general partner interests in venture capital and private equity partnerships

• Named to The Best Lawyers in America list
• Named to the Massachusetts Super Lawyers list, 2007-2018
  

Kurt has participated as a faculty member and written course materials for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, the American Law Institute, the American Bar Association, the National Business Institute, the Boston Estate Planning Council, and Homeowner Options for Massachusetts Elders. His recent publications include:

• Co-author of "Trustee Appointment and Succession," Chapter 3 in Understanding and Using Trusts (MCLE, 2016 supplement)
• Co-author of "Dispositive Provisions," Chapter 4 in Drafting Irrevocable Trusts in Massachusetts (MCLE,2nd ed. 2016)

• Former Olympic and national team oarsman
• Founder and Trustee, Community Rowing, Inc. (CRI), the country's largest public access rowing program
• Founder and Director, CRASH-B Sprints World Indoor Rowing Championships. Served as President for 15 years
• Director, Cambridge Boat Club and Chair of the Investment Committee
• Steward, Friends of Dartmouth Rowing
• Long-time Trustee and committee member, Noble and Greenough School, Dedham, MA
• Trustee, Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston
• Member, Fuller Brook Park Committee, Wellesley, MA
• Trustee, Member of Development and Governance Committees, Tenacre Country Day School
• Director, Treasurer and Clerk, Albert N. Parlin House, Inc., Everett, MA, a non-profit rooming house for "worthy young men"

“One of the great satisfactions of my work with Hemenway & Barnes is the ability to know and understand the broad range of motivations and priorities in the lives of my clients. We tailor our services to best meet those needs – often for a complex array of multiple generations. Seeing these plans come to fruition, sometimes years or even decades later, provides tremendous gratification.”