PEMBERTON TRUST COMPANY
A Century of Stewardship.
Pemberton Trust Company — Est. 1924
About
A Century of Quiet Conviction
Pemberton Trust Company was founded in 1924 by Alistair Pemberton, a merchant banker of considerable reputation who believed that the stewardship of great wealth demanded patience, discretion, and an unbroken continuity of counsel. That conviction has never wavered.
Over the course of a century, we have guided families through the rise of markets and the discipline of their decline, through the passage of estates across three and four generations, through wars, recessions, and the quiet revolutions that reshape inherited fortune. We did not grow by acquiring other firms. We grew by being trusted.
Today, Pemberton remains privately held and independent — beholden to no shareholder, no parent institution, no quarterly imperative. Our clients are not accounts. They are relationships of consequence, many spanning decades, some spanning lifetimes.
Our Philosophy
The Pemberton Standard
The Mandate:
We maintain a strictly capped roster of family relationships. This is not a matter of scale, but of preservation. We only accept a new mandate when we are certain our attention can remain absolute.
Zero Visibility:
We do not participate in industry rankings, nor do we publish the names of our Principals. Our presence is felt by our families, and invisible to the market.
Generational Vetting:
We do not just manage assets: we manage legacies. We look for shared alignment of values before beginning the discovery process.
Services
The Full Scope of Private Counsel
We do not offer products. We offer relationship — the sustained, unhurried application of expertise across every dimension of a family's financial life.
Private Banking
Bespoke credit, liquidity management, and banking arrangements structured around the complexity of significant wealth — not simplified for it.
Wealth Management
Asset allocation and portfolio stewardship built on long investment horizons. We think in decades. We measure in generations.
Family Office
Comprehensive coordination of a family's full financial, administrative, and governance affairs — a single point of trusted authority.
Services, continued
Trust, Estate & Philanthropic Advisory
Trust & Estate
The orderly transfer of wealth is among the most consequential acts a family undertakes. Our trust officers and counsel have guided hundreds of estates through this passage — with precision, sensitivity, and an acute understanding of what is truly at stake.
We serve as trustee, co-trustee, executor, and advisor. We do not merely administer. We steward.
Philanthropic Advisory
For families whose wealth carries an obligation of consequence, we provide the full architecture of structured giving — from private foundations and donor-advised funds to charitable trusts and impact strategies.
Generosity, properly structured, is its own form of legacy. We help families build it with the same care applied to every other dimension of their estate.
Leadership
The Principals
Pemberton's leadership comprises individuals who have each devoted the better part of their careers to the private wealth profession. They are chosen not for credential alone, but for judgment — the quality that cannot be taught and is not easily found.
Edward Pemberton III
Chairman & Senior Principal
Third generation. Forty-one years at the firm. The continuity of the institution is, in many respects, his personal responsibility.
Margaret Ashford
President & Chief Investment Officer
Three decades in private wealth. Former head of a major institutional endowment. Joined Pemberton in 2001.
Alistair Drummond
Head of Trust & Estate
Former partner at a leading London chambers. Brought to Pemberton for the quality of his counsel and the steadiness of his temperament.
Our Reach
Established. Enduring. Discreet.
1924
Year Founded
A century of unbroken private ownership and client trust.
4th
Generation
The families we serve today are, in many cases, the families we served at our founding.
100%
Independent
No institutional parent. No outside shareholders. No agenda but the client's own.
The Pemberton Approach
How We Work
Engagement with Pemberton is not a transaction; it is a mutual election. Following a formal introduction, prospective families enter a period of Closed Inquiry. This is a deliberate, unhurried assessment of goals and generational intent. We do not "onboard" clients; we admit Principals into a century-old tradition of quiet conviction.
"We do not manage money. We manage the consequences of money — across time, across generations, and across every dimension of a family's life."
— Edward Pemberton III, Chairman
Contact
We Do Not Chase Clients…Private Entrance by Referral Only
We are not currently accepting unsolicited inquiries. If you have been provided with a Referral Code by a current member family or a partnering legal counsel. Please mention it when contacted. For all other matters, correspondence may be directed via courier to One Pemberton Court.
Pemberton Trust Company
One Pemberton Court
New York, New York 10004

Private Entrance by Referral Only
Initial consultations are conducted in person, by appointment only. We maintain offices in New York, London, and Geneva. Meetings may be arranged at the location most convenient to you.
Pemberton Trust Company is a registered trust company and investment adviser. Services are offered exclusively to qualified clients as defined under applicable law. This website does not constitute an offer or solicitation in any jurisdiction where such would be unlawful. © 2024 Pemberton Trust Company. All rights reserved. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.