PROVINCETOWN — In the years since restaurateur, art collector, and landlord Anton “Napi” Van Dereck Haunstrup died and left his estate, estimated at $17 million, to his wife, Helen, a lot has changed.

Many longtime employees of Napi’s Restaurant were fired and evicted; Helen Haunstrup, who suffers from dementia, has disappeared from town, with her whereabouts unknown even to many of her close friends; the estate’s residential units have fallen further into disrepair; and a protracted battle with the town’s health dept. over unsafe conditions at one 12-unit complex resulted in the board of health asking the town’s lawyers to petition the Housing Court to appoint a receiver.

Friends, former employees, and at least one family member — Napi’s half-sister Judy Saffron — have raised questions about Haunstrup’s care and the estate’s disposition, both of which are now under the control of one man: the Van Derecks’ longtime financial adviser, Bernard McEneaney of Marstons Mills. Some financial professionals contacted by the Independent said that the publicly known facts regarding McEneaney’s role raise questions of potential conflict of interest that could constitute a violation of ethical standards.

McEneaney did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

The Sole Trustee

After Napi died on Christmas Day 2019, McEneaney fought for control of the Van Dereck estate in Barnstable County Probate and Family Court. Haunstrup had been diagnosed with dementia in 2018, and in January 2020 a doctor declared her unfit to manage the estate.

McEneaney won legal guardianship of Haunstrup in October 2021 and was appointed personal representative of Napi’s estate the next month by Probate Judge Susan Sard Tierney. Saffron, who had been close to Haunstrup for many years, challenged the appointments but lost both cases. Judge Tierney then sealed all the documents related to the case.

McEneaney also became the sole trustee of the Van Dereck Trust, which owns more than a dozen residential properties in Provincetown, as well as of the Van Dereck Charitable Living Trust. The Center for Coastal Studies and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum are reported to be the beneficiaries of the living trust.

The trust documents were amended in November 2021 when McEneaney assumed control of the estate, available records at the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds show. Those documents are now sealed.

McEneaney argued that he would adhere to the Van Derecks’ wishes better than anyone else. “It was important to them to provide folks in the community year-round employment and housing,” McEneaney argued in a letter submitted to the court. “They did not have children; their employees and customers are their family.”

In August 2021, McEneaney fired at least seven longtime Jamaican employees of the restaurant and evicted them from employee housing. In January 2024, McEneaney informed tenants at the 12-unit complex on Bradford Street known as Napiville that he intended to sell the property and that they had to be out by April 1.

That property had been the subject of repeated complaints from tenants and abutters since McEneaney assumed control in 2020. Town inspections documented clogged cesspools with sewage backing up into tenants’ bathrooms, caved-in roofs and walls, mold, inadequate heating, and hazardous electrical work.

The estate currently owes the town almost $20,000 in fines stemming from unaddressed health dept. orders, according to board of health chair Susan Troyan.

The board of health voted unanimously on May 16 to petition the Southeast Housing Court to appoint a receiver to oversee repair of the property. Property managers McEneaney and Lisa Meads, the town argued, had done nothing to correct unsafe conditions.

To seek answers regarding McEneaney’s control of the estate, this reporter filed a motion in Probate Court to unseal the documents related to McEneaney’s conservatorship of Haunstrup. The Independent discovered in March that Judge Tierney had impounded the documents in 2021 without issuing a written order, a violation of Massachusetts trial court rules.

Tierney denied the Independent’s request on May 21, citing a need to protect Haunstrup’s privacy. Tierney then issued a written order impounding the case files for another 20 years.

A Widow Disappears

After Napi died, friends and restaurant employees stepped in to take care of Haunstrup. “We stayed with her all the time,” said Fernando Sosa, a cook who was fired by McEneaney following Napi’s death. “We made dinner every night and took her for walks.” Sosa currently lives at Napiville.

Shortly after McEneaney became Haunstrup’s conservator, she disappeared from Provincetown. “They decided that they didn’t want anyone to be close to her,” said Sosa.

Friends say that they have not been able to get in touch with Haunstrup since she left Provincetown in early 2022, more than two years ago. “Though she is well fed and well dressed, she is being kept away from the people who love her, and no one seems to know why,” said Jackie Kelly, a longtime friend of the Van Derecks who briefly worked at the restaurant. Sosa said he called Haunstrup on her birthday last summer. “That was the last time I spoke to her,” he said.

“Helen was loved by Provincetowners who knew her to be a gentle and kind member of this community,” said Kelly. “Her daily walks through town gave her attention, comfort, and love.”

Jane Paradise, another friend of the Van Derecks, told the Independent that McEneaney rents places in Florida and North Carolina, and that he has hired two caretakers for Haunstrup. “He shuttles her back and forth,” Paradise said.

The Independent examined Airbnb receipts showing that McEneaney had rented a house in New Smyrna Beach, Fla. listed at $20,000 a month. A realtor for Olde Town Brokers, which manages the rental, confirmed that McEneaney had stayed there for three months “with an elderly friend.”

‘We Aren’t Hiding Her’

McEneaney did not respond to inquiries about Haunstrup’s whereabouts. Lisa Meads said, “I don’t think anyone realizes how great she is doing. She has the most amazing caregivers. They are her best friends.

“We aren’t hiding her from anybody,” Meads added. “We want to keep her safe. You wouldn’t believe the amount of people who still want her money.” Meads declined to give Haunstrup’s current location.

Rich Delaney, executive director of the Center for Coastal Studies, which stands to benefit from the Van Dereck trusts, defended McEneaney’s actions this week. “Everyone’s main concern is that Helen is being taken care of,” Delaney said. “That is what Berni is doing. All the noise and misrepresentation is distracting.”

Delaney said that the town’s actions to bring Napiville into compliance with the state sanitary code have been too harsh. “Being trustee means being a businessman at times and selling properties,” he said. “How is he supposed to connect to the sewer or upgrade the property if he intends to sell it?

“He is trying to do everything that Napi would do in the most humane way possible,” Delaney added. Delaney said that he had not seen any of the trust documents.

Other friends of Haunstrup, however, including Kelly, Paradise, Judy Dutra, and Ellis Wilson, contradicted Delaney. Napi had helped Wilson emigrate from Jamaica in 2011 to work at his restaurant. McEneaney fired and evicted Wilson in 2021.

“It isn’t what Napi wanted,” Wilson said.

“Napi envisioned that Helen would remain in Provincetown for the rest of her days,” said Kelly.

“It’s not what Napi wanted for Helen,” said Dutra, a friend of the Van Derecks. “It’s heartbreaking.”

From Adviser to Trustee

McEneaney’s sole control of the Van Dereck estate has raised questions about potential conflict of interest.

In October 2020, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a private company that establishes standards for brokerage firms and independent financial advisers, issued a new rule that would limit financial professionals from being named in a customer’s will.

“A registered person shall decline being named as executor or trustee or holding a power of attorney,” the rule states. It requires financial advisers to provide written notice to their firms that they have been named in a client’s estate and to get approval for such a designation. A financial professional cannot “derive financial gain from acting in such capacity other than from fees or other charges that are reasonable and customary,” the rule states.

According to an online database of financial representatives registered with FINRA, McEneaney’s registration lapsed in June 2020, four months before the new rule was announced and six months after Napi’s death. McEneaney had been registered with the Commonwealth Financial Network for over 20 years as an independent adviser with his own firm, McEneaney & Company.

There are no records in the Mass. Div. of Corporations database for McEneaney & Company, and the town clerk for Barnstable, where McEneaney’s office is located, said that McEneaney’s business certificate expired in 2013.

There are no records in FINRA’s database regarding any disclosures of possible conflict of interest McEneaney made while registered as a financial representative; Commonwealth Financial Network declined to say whether McEneaney had informed it of his role in the Van Dereck estate.

According to the October 2020 notice from FINRA, “many firms address conflicts by prohibiting or imposing limitations on being named as a beneficiary or to a position of trust.” Nonetheless, FINRA “observed situations where registered representatives tried to circumvent firm policies, such as resigning as a customer’s registered representative.”

The notice added that “senior investors who are isolated or suffering from cognitive decline are particularly vulnerable.”

Available court records show that McEneaney was named as successor personal representative in Napi’s will in 2017 as well as successor co-trustee of the Van Dereck Trust and the Van Dereck Charitable Living Trust. Six months after Napi died, McEneaney also became president of Van Dereck Enterprises, the LLC that owned Napi’s Restaurant, Mass. Div. of Corporations records show. According to those records, La Tanzi, Spaulding & Landreth attorney Christopher Ward became director of the company along with McEneaney.

Ward was Haunstrup’s attorney and temporary conservator before Tierney appointed McEneaney. Ward did not respond to a request for comment.

Div. of Corporations records show that McEneaney and Ward dissolved the corporation in December 2021. The next month, the restaurant’s current owner, Dan Sabuda, registered the business under a new name, LKD Restaurant Group.

The Independent contacted four different financial professionals on Cape Cod, all of whom raised questions about McEneaney’s role in the Van Dereck estate on the basis of the limited facts known to the public because of the sealed court files. Mark Schiffenhaus of Wellfleet, a certified financial planner for Long Point Wealth Management, said that the limited explanation offered to date “sounds suspicious.”

“As a financial adviser, you are required to disclose these types of conflicts,” Schiffenhaus said. “It is strange that there is only one person who is in control of everything.”

Schiffenhaus added that there is no way of knowing the full story, however, as long as the trust documents remain sealed. “Without reading the documents and understanding why the court sealed the documents, I couldn’t say,” he said. “It’s unusual. A trust is a living document.”

Delaney told the Independent that McEneaney did not choose to be so involved in the estate. “He was thrust into a situation he didn’t seek out,” Delaney said. “He isn’t making decisions unilaterally; he is overseen by the court.”

A Challenge to McEneaney

Napi’s half-sister Judy Saffron filed a petition in Probate Court in February 2023 seeking McEneaney’s removal as trustee of the Charitable Living Trust. The case was heard by Judge Tierney. In an affidavit, Saffron cited a clause in the trust document that specifies that there should always be two trustees.

The Independent reviewed an excerpt from the trust document and confirmed that it states “there should always be at least two trustees.”

In the affidavit, dated January 2023, Saffron argued that the trust names her as successor co-trustee alongside McEneaney. She argued in the affidavit that McEneaney never notified her about her appointment, which raised “significant concerns of potential breach of fiduciary duty and possible inappropriate self-dealing.”

Eight months later, on Aug. 1, McEneaney’s lawyer Richard Novitch notified Saffron that she is the beneficiary of the impounded trust, which conditions Saffron’s receipt “so long as she has not commenced any lawsuits against various individuals” including McEneaney.

Saffron dropped the case a month later.

Novitch did not respond to questions from the Independent. Falmouth lawyer Robert Brown, who Tierney appointed to oversee McEneaney’s handling of Haunstrup’s care and her estate planning, declined to comment, citing the judge’s impoundment of the case.

Meads told the Independent that McEneaney has poured the estate’s resources into Haunstrup’s care. “We all knew about the condition that Napi left his properties in,” she said. “We were trying to figure out, how do we do this? We had Helen on one side and maintaining the properties on the other. What would you decide? We decided to take care of Helen.”

Regarding Saffron’s being frozen out of Haunstrup’s life, Judy Dutra told the Independent, “I don’t understand how Judy got completely railroaded by this situation. Helen loved her.”

“I miss Helen every day,” Saffron wrote to the Independent. “Being prohibited from being able to see, hear, or write to her has caused a deep wound that will not heal. I know that I will never be able to see her alive again.”