[1] Carney's interests turned to finance and he assisted in founding the First National Bank of Boston and the John Hancock Insurance Company for which he worked as a director.

The Naval contract coupled with declining material and labor costs, caused by the Panic of 1837 resulted in high profits.

[5] Carney, then 50 years old, would initially devote his time to increasing his wealth by making prudent investments in Boston's real estate market.

[citation needed] In 1837 he was an organizer of the Montgomery Guards, an Irish-American militia company in Boston which was forced to disband due to nativist and anti-Catholic sentiment.

This institution, established by Father George Foxcroft Haskins in 1851, was set up to provide a temporary home for homeless, neglected, or unmanageable boys 10 to 16 years of age[8] and run by the Brothers of Charity.

He donated $5000 plus all of the construction expenses[10] to John McElroy, S.J the person responsible for the planning and creation of the college and church, who would oversee the use of the gift to complete the projects.

This institution, established by Bishop John Joseph Williams in 1851, was set up to provide a temporary home for children 3 to 12 years old until they are placed in houses in the community.

His funeral was held at the Church of the Immaculate Conception and the services were attended by many prominent Bostonians including the Governor of Massachusetts, John Albion Andrew and members of his cabinet.

John McElroy, S.J., who had worked closely with Carney during the creation of Boston College gave the eulogy, part of which is recounted below:[5] ”God alone knows his good acts and will reward him for them.

I will say this, however, it would have been difficult to have carried on such extensive buildings as these, humanly speaking, if Divine Providence had not raised up for us a friend as Andrew Carney.

His wife Pamelia, had the body exhumed and reinterred at the Forest Hills Cemetery in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.