Cresset Adds $4 Billion Team From UBS
Cresset Capital Management, a multi-family office based in New York overseeing more than $250 billion in client assets, has added a 16-person wealth advisor team that previously managed $4 billion in client assets at UBS. The team, led by Michael Bober and Ed Ventrice, expands Cresset’s presence in the South Florida region with the addition of a Boca Raton office.
Bober and Ventrice were at UBS for the last 11 years, most recently as managing directors. They’re joined by Michael MacDonald, William “Billy” Marino, Sarah Ponczek, and Alex Santos.
The team specializes in working with corporate executives, business owners, high-net-worth individuals, multigenerational families, foundations and endowments, and professional athletes. In addition to comprehensive wealth management, they also provide institutional consulting and business succession planning.
“Joining Cresset represents an exciting next chapter for our team and our clients,” Bober said in a statement. “Cresset has built an exceptional platform around an integrated approach to wealth management, and we look forward to offering our clients those capabilities while continuing to provide the highly personal advice and service they expect.”
This follows news in July that Cresset hired Chris Tiano and Nick Smith as managing directors and wealth advisors in its Los Angeles and New York offices. Tiano and Smith previously served as directors for Lazard Wealth for about two years. While there, they oversaw $1.1 billion in client assets.
Cresset has been making moves to poach advisors focused on high-net-worth families, leveraging its multi-family office services and alternative investment capabilities. In February, it announced that it had brought over Heather Pelant as a managing director in San Francisco. Pelant had been managing a $2 billion book of business at Baker Street Advisors. In 2024, Cresset brought over another San Francisco-based team, this time from J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, that had built up a $5 billion book of business.
Cresset was founded in 2017 as a family office to serve entrepreneurs and private equity players Eric Becker and Avy Stein.
In April, the firm promoted Susie Cranston to CEO, with Stein and Becker stepping down as co-CEOs to serve as executive co-chairs.
The firm also touts its employee-owned structure as a source of longevity. It sold a minority stake of less than 10% in Constellation Wealth Capital in 2024 and has since made a few major acquisitions, including last year’s deal for Monticello Associates, an employee-owned institutional consulting firm with $124 billion in assets under advisement.
