The QI File

Qualified Intermediary

Maine Exchange Services

Maine Exchange Services, LLC · Parent: Independent / attorney-founded (Thomas F. Jewell, Esq., and Paul S. Bulger, Esq.) · Firm website

FEA membership
FEA member
CES® holders
Carol A. Redfern, CES®
Fidelity bond
Not published on cited pages
E&O / other cover
Homepage: fully insured and bonded as part of State of Maine licensing requirements. No dollar limits on the firm pages cited. Maine statute minima live on /states/maine/ and are not this firm’s certificates.
How funds are held
Segregated
Dual-signature wires
Wire controls unknown
Reverse / improvement / DST
Reverse Yes · Improvement Yes · DST Unknown
Last sourced
2026-09-11

Published coverage notes

Homepage: fully insured and bonded as part of State of Maine licensing requirements. No dollar limits on the firm pages cited. Maine statute minima live on /states/maine/ and are not this firm’s certificates.

Fund handling

Homepage: separate escrow sub-accounts for all client funds. A 2020 published client letter describes a Qualified Escrow Account at Machias Savings Bank on that file — that is a customer quote, not a current bank-list policy page. Dual-signature and TIN title are unpublished.

Fee structure

No public dollar card. A 2020 published client letter says the firm sent a fee schedule with the exchange primer; that schedule is not printed on the pages cited.

Who it is for

Nationwide delayed/forward, reverse, and improvement 1031 exchangers who want a Portland, Maine QI. Homepage: founded 2009 by attorneys Thomas F. Jewell, Esq., and Paul S. Bulger, Esq. Owner Carol A. Redfern, CES®. Office: 75 Pearl Street, Suite 420, Portland, Maine 04101; (207) 871-1031. Company FEA: ‘only Maine-based member.’ DST work is not on the page cited.

Verdict

Source-rich Maine file: published LLC, attorney founders, named CES® owner, company FEA membership, forward/reverse/improvement menu, and separate escrow sub-accounts. Bond and E&O dollars are unpublished — the firm says it is insured and bonded because Maine licenses facilitators, which is not the same as posting today’s declarations. Do not copy 10 M.R.S. §1397’s $250,000 / $100,000 minima onto this file. This is QI custody, not a securities offering. Ask for the current Maine license number, which §1397 path they use, the live account title, and the Machias-or-other bank on your engagement papers.

Notes

This is a QI custody file, not a securities offering. The legal name on the homepage is Maine Exchange Services, LLC (MES). Confirm that name on the exchange agreement.

Homepage About: founded in 2009 by attorneys Thomas F. Jewell, Esq., and Paul S. Bulger, Esq. Carol A. Redfern is Owner and a Certified Exchange Specialist (CES®). McKayla R. Redfern is named as Exchange Processor; Adam L. Redfern as Senior Business Analyst. Those two are not CES® listings.

Company FEA is on the homepage twice: “the only Maine-based member of the Federation of Exchange Accommodators (FEA)” and “As a member of the Federation of Exchange Accommodators (FEA).” That is the company-membership source.

The firm markets an estimated $200 million a year in real-estate transactions. That is volume marketing, not a rating and not a custody control.

A 2020 client letter on the same homepage names “Carol Vining” and a Qualified Escrow Account at Machias Savings Bank. The firm’s own custody sentence is separate escrow sub-accounts. Do not treat the letter as a current depository roster or as a second CES® name.

Maine licenses exchange facilitators (10 M.R.S. §§1396–1397). See /states/maine/. This listing does not assert that MES holds a current license number, and it does not assign the statute’s dollar minima to MES.

Sources

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Corrections and verification

Listings are sourced from public pages. Unknown is omitted, not graded. If a fact is wrong or stale, send the primary URL.

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