Two more Wells Fargo executives have jumped to Cresset Family Office, joining an earlier wave of colleagues at the fast-growing wealth management firm.
The multifamily office group within Cresset Capital Management said Tuesday it hired Tony McEahern to lead wealth strategy at the firm. He was previously the head of Wealth Planning for Wells Fargo’s Wealth Management and Abbot Downing divisions, based in Denver. Wells Fargo declined to comment on McEahern’s departure.
Joel Alberts joined Cresset from Abbot Downing, Wells Fargo’s unit that caters to ultra-high-net-worth clients, and will be an advisor in Cresset’s Midwest market, headquartered in Minneapolis.
Cresset also hired Dan Terlep to be the multifamily office’s senior managing director of Financial and Tax Strategy. He was previously a manager at RSM, where he helped restructure family offices to improve their governance and tax liabilities.
In addition to McEahern and Alberts, Cresset has attracted others from Abbot Downing; it oversees more than $45 billion in assets which have grown by more than 40 percent since the brand was established in 2012. In October, Jill Shipley and Vimala Snow, two veterans who specialize in generational wealth transfers and charitable giving, left Abbot Downing to join Cresset Family Office.
Overall, registered investment advisors see increasing opportunities to serve the wealthiest clients. In the past 3 years, ultra-high-net-worth assets overseen by independent multifamily offices have grown 10 percent on average each year, about five times as fast as assets held at private banks, Cerulli Associates estimates.
Cresset Capital Management, which was co-founded by Eric Becker (one of WealthManagement.com’s Ten to Watch in 2019), is one of the fastest-growing RIAs in the country and has attracted more than $3 billion since its founding in June of last year.