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Hennion & Walsh Asset Management
Richard Hennion and Kevin Walsh founded the firm in 1990, building a registered investment advisor that would become a dominant retail conduit for...
Hennion & Walsh Asset Management
Richard Hennion and Kevin Walsh founded the firm in 1990, building a registered investment advisor that would become a dominant retail conduit for tax-advantaged municipal securities. Hennion & Walsh operates from its headquarters in Parsippany, New Jersey, advising individuals, business entities, and organizations on a discretionary and non-discretionary basis. The firm's identity is inseparable from the muni bond market — it built a national footprint by educating retail investors on tax-equivalent yields and creating direct access to bonds historically reserved for institutional portfolios. The core strategy centers on constructing individual municipal bond portfolios rather than commingled funds. This approach allows the firm to ladder maturities and target specific state tax exemptions for clients, primarily in high-tax jurisdictions. Beyond traditional buy-and-hold muni mandates, Hennion & Walsh has expanded into managed accounts that layer in taxable fixed income and preferred securities. The firm sources inventory directly from underwriting syndicates and secondary market desks, publishing extensive bond market commentary and conducting a steady schedule of investor seminars that double as client acquisition channels. Its geographic concentration tracks the municipal bond demand map — California, New York, and Florida feature prominently. Hennion & Walsh markets through a combination of digital platforms, televised programming, and in-person events to reach a national audience of self-directed and advised investors. The firm also publishes books and guides demystifying municipal bond investing, which reinforce its brand as a specialist educator. In recent years, the firm has maintained a steady presence through its SmartTrust suite of unit investment trusts, which packages diversified muni portfolios into accessible vehicles for smaller accounts. What structurally distinguishes Hennion & Walsh is its role as a principal distribution platform rather than a manufacturer of proprietary funds. It functions as a bridge between institutional municipal bond desks and the fragmented retail market, converting bond-call-risk and coupon-structure complexity into individual client narratives. That retail-to-institutional inventory connection — built over three decades — gives it a distribution leverage that a generalist wealth manager cannot replicate without equivalent fixed-income headcount and desk relationships.
General information
Firm type
Bank / Wealth / Trust
Year founded
1990
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Parsippany
Corporate office
Parsippany, NJ, United States
Principals
Richard Hennion
Co-Founder
Kevin Walsh
Co-Founder
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
What is Hennion & Walsh's primary investment focus?
The firm concentrates overwhelmingly on tax-exempt municipal bonds. It constructs individual bond portfolios for clients seeking income that is exempt from federal — and often state — income tax. Its secondary expertise spans taxable fixed income and unit investment trusts that package diversified muni exposures. The singular focus on munis is unusual among registered investment advisors of its size.
How does Hennion & Walsh source the bonds it places with clients?
The firm accesses inventory through direct relationships with underwriting syndicates and secondary market trading desks at major broker-dealers. This institutional sourcing model allows it to offer retail clients bonds at what it represents as institutional-derived pricing. The firm's distribution volume in the muni market gives it leverage to negotiate allotments on new issues that smaller wealth managers cannot access.
Does Hennion & Walsh run commingled mutual funds or only separate accounts?
Hennion & Walsh primarily constructs individual managed bond accounts tailored to client tax situations and state residency. It also sponsors the SmartTrust series of unit investment trusts, which offer diversified, defined-maturity municipal bond portfolios in a packaged format. The firm does not operate as a traditional mutual fund manager — its architecture is built around individual bond ownership.
Who runs investment decisions at Hennion & Walsh?
Co-founders Richard Hennion and Kevin Walsh have led the firm since 1990. Investment strategy and credit selection operate through the firm's internal fixed-income desk, which evaluates municipal issuers across revenue-bond and general-obligation categories. The firm does not publicly disclose a separate CIO beyond the founding leadership team.
What geographic regions does Hennion & Walsh target for its muni bond business?
The firm serves a national client base but concentrates marketing and portfolio construction around high-tax states where municipal bond demand is strongest — California, New York, New Jersey, and Florida are core markets. Portfolios are often structured to maximize state-specific tax exemptions for residents of those jurisdictions.
Is Hennion & Walsh a single family office or a multi-family office?
Neither. Hennion & Walsh operates as a registered investment advisor and broker-dealer serving a broad base of individual investors, business entities, and organizations. It has never been structured around managing wealth for a single family or a closed group of high-net-worth families. Its model is retail and institutional distribution, not family-office advisory.
How does Hennion & Walsh approach co-investment or alternative assets?
The firm does not publicly participate in private-market co-investments, venture capital, private equity, or hedge fund allocations. Its investment posture remains anchored to public fixed-income markets, with municipals at the core. Allocators seeking exposure to alternatives will find no mandate for that asset class within Hennion & Walsh's disclosed strategy.
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