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Minot DeBlois Advisors
Minot DeBlois Advisors launched in 2009 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rice, Heard & Bigelow, a private trustee firm whose roots reach back to the first...
Minot DeBlois Advisors
Minot DeBlois Advisors launched in 2009 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rice, Heard & Bigelow, a private trustee firm whose roots reach back to the first Boston trust office founded by George Richards Minot in 1782. The parent firm historically managed the Franklin Fund, capital bequeathed by Benjamin Franklin to the City of Boston, and continues to provide trustee services to multi-generational families. CEO Zachary Bourque and President Gregory Gullickson are both directors and shareholders of Rice, Heard & Bigelow, reinforcing a governance structure where the investment adviser and the trustee operate under overlapping leadership. The firm constructs individual portfolios using high-quality single-company stocks for growth alongside fixed-income securities for income and capital preservation. Portfolios span large-cap equities, US Treasury and municipal bonds, and select corporate credit across investment-grade and crossover exposures. Client accounts run discretionary or non-discretionary depending on the governing instrument; trust accounts, in particular, are managed under the Uniform Prudent Investor Act framework that Rice, Heard & Bigelow has navigated for decades. Portfolio management flows through a centralized investment team that debates asset allocation, security selection, and position sizing collectively — there is no siloed analyst-to-PM handoff. The firm operates from a single office in Boston’s Financial District and manages domestic-only mandates. The board and compliance architecture draws from law and tax practitioners. Chief Compliance Officer Robert Bannish and director Sarah Allen are Massachusetts estate-planning attorneys; director Kevin McQuaid is a CPA and IRS Enrolled Agent. This concentration of legal and tax expertise shapes an investment process that evaluates after-tax return and trust-specific liquidity requirements before portfolio construction begins. The team includes CFA charterholders and a Yale-trained literary scholar serving as Chair of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts’ Socially Responsible Investing Committee. No adjacent venture arm, fund-of-funds program, or co-investment club exists — MDA operates exclusively as a portfolio manager for separately managed accounts. MDA’s structure is unusual among RIAs because it is embedded inside a multi-generational trustee firm rather than operating as a standalone wealth manager. This arrangement means the firm’s core client base arrives from existing Rice, Heard & Bigelow trust relationships rather than through open-market marketing, and its compliance culture is shaped by fiduciary law practitioners rather than career asset-management compliance officers. The result is an investment process governed by trust-law standards of prudence and permanence, not by relative-return benchmarking.
General information
Firm type
Bank / Wealth / Trust
Year founded
2009
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Boston
Corporate office
One Federal Street, 25th Floor, Boston, MA 02110, United States
Principals
Zachary A. Bourque
Chief Executive Officer, Portfolio Manager, Strategist
Gregory Gullickson
President, Chairman of the Board
Robert G. Bannish
Chief Compliance Officer
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Minot DeBlois Advisors?
CEO Zachary Bourque and President Gregory Gullickson set overall strategy, with portfolio management executed by a centralized investment team that includes Bourque, Gullickson, and Investment Officer Adam Rutledge. All are CFA charterholders, and all are directors and shareholders of parent company Rice, Heard & Bigelow (per the firm's website). The team makes collective decisions on asset allocation, security selection, and portfolio weightings.
Is Minot DeBlois Advisors a single-family office or a multi-family wealth manager?
It operates as a registered investment adviser serving multiple families, trusts, and foundations. However, it was built as the investment arm of a multi-generational trustee firm, Rice, Heard & Bigelow, and most of its clients originate from those long-standing trust relationships. It functions like an embedded family-office investment team extended to a defined client base rather than a broad-market RIA.
Does Minot DeBlois participate in fund commitments or only direct securities?
Only direct securities. The firm explicitly states on its website that it does not underwrite securities or sell proprietary investment products. Portfolios are composed of individual stocks and bonds held in separately managed accounts, not pooled funds. There is no private equity, venture capital, hedge fund, or fund-of-funds activity.
Which sectors does Minot DeBlois explicitly avoid?
The firm's website does not disclose explicit sector exclusions by label, but its stated philosophy — high-quality individual stocks for growth and fixed-income for income and safety — precludes exposure to private markets, venture-stage companies, non-investment-grade debt, and structured products. Investment Officer Adam Rutledge chairs the Episcopal Diocese’s Socially Responsible Investing Committee, suggesting ESG screens may apply to certain faith-based or donor-advised accounts, though the firm does not mandate a universal SRI overlay.
How is Minot DeBlois related to its parent company, Rice, Heard & Bigelow?
Minot DeBlois Advisors is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rice, Heard & Bigelow, a private firm of trustees based in Boston. Rice, Heard & Bigelow traces its lineage to George Richards Minot’s 1782 trust office, which managed the Franklin Fund. MDA was formed in 2009 to extend investment advisory services to RHB’s trust and non-trust clients and to serve outside individuals and organizations. Three of MDA’s named portfolio managers — Zachary Bourque, Gregory Gullickson, and Adam Rutledge — are shareholders and directors of the parent company.
Does Minot DeBlois maintain philanthropic structures, and how are they separated?
The firm manages assets for charitable trusts and foundations through its parent’s trustee relationships but does not operate a standalone philanthropic entity. Investment Officer Adam Rutledge chairs the Socially Responsible Investing Committee for the Trustees of Donations, the entity managing assets for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, a role that creates informal SRI expertise applied inside client portfolios.
What is Minot DeBlois's known posture on co-investments alongside external managers?
The firm does not engage in co-investments alongside external GPs. It is not a limited partner in any private fund managers and has no club-deal or sidecar vehicle. All client capital is deployed directly into publicly traded equities and fixed-income instruments through individual separate accounts managed in-house.
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