WEALTH MANAGEMENT
Cresset Adds $4bn UBS Advisory Team in Boca Raton Expansion
The independent multi-family office continues to build out its US footprint by recruiting entire wirehouse teams rather than opening from scratch.
Cresset, the independent multi-family office and private investment firm, has announced its expansion to Boca Raton, Florida, with the addition of a 16-person advisory team led by Michael Bober and Ed Ventrice. The team previously managed approximately $4 billion in client assets while serving as Managing Directors at UBS Financial Services. The group, which also includes Michael MacDonald, William Marino, Sarah Ponczek and Alex Santos, advises corporate executives, business owners, high-net-worth individuals, multigenerational families, foundations and endowments, and professional athletes.
Accounting backgrounds behind the advisory model
Bober and Ventrice each bring more than three decades of experience in wealth management. Before moving into advisory roles, both worked as Certified Public Accountants at a national accounting firm, a background the firm says has shaped the team's approach to coordinating tax, planning and investment advice for clients. Ventrice said Cresset's family office model "closely aligns with how we have always believed wealth should be managed—with a comprehensive, long-term perspective that extends well beyond investment management."
Recruitment from wirehouses continues
The hire extends a pattern in which Cresset has grown by recruiting established advisory teams from large wirehouses rather than building regional offices organically. Cresset Chief Executive Susie Cranston said the firm was "thrilled to expand our presence in South Florida to Boca Raton," citing the team's "deep and longstanding relationships throughout the Boca Raton community." Bober said joining Cresset represented "an exciting next chapter" for the team and its clients.
Cresset operates an open-architecture, multi-custodial model and describes its capabilities as spanning investment management, private markets, tax preparation, estate and trust services, business succession planning, insurance advisory and philanthropic planning. The firm has been recognised in industry rankings published by Forbes and Barron's, according to Cresset's own disclosures.