Veteran dealmaker Nesvold lands at Emigrant Bank

Liz Nesvold

Part of her focus will be to 'cultivate and elevate the story' of Emigrant Bank in the wealth management industry, she says.

Elizabeth “Liz” Nesvold, the peripatetic veteran investment banker focused on registered investment advisors, is now working at Emigrant Bank, which controls Emigrant Partners, a longtime investor in minority stakes of RIAs.

Nesvold had her own firm based in New York, Silver Lane Advisors, for a decade before selling in 2019 to Raymond James & Associates, where she served as a managing director. She left Raymond James last year to jump to private investment firm Cresset, where she was president, but departed there earlier this year. She had started her career at what is now Berkshire Global Advisors, a boutique investment bank.

Nesvold’s new title is vice chair at Emigrant Bank and chair of Emigrant Partners, the RIA business.

Emigrant Partners for years has been a quiet behemoth in the RIA industry, and hiring Nesvold, who was recognized by InvestmentNews as a Woman to Watch in 2019, is sure to raise its profile there. The firm’s RIA portfolio includes 20 partner firms with more than $100 billion in assets under management and advisement and in excess of $400 million of combined revenues, according to the company.

“Liz is one of the brightest, most talented and productive executives in the wealth management space,” said Larry Roth, an industry veteran and managing partner of his own consulting firm, RLR strategic Partners. “Emigrant Partners is fortunate to have her on the team.”

“I’m thrilled to have finally recruited Liz to the team after collaborating with her on multiple transactions over the past decade,” Howard Milstein, chairman and CEO of Emigrant, said in a statement. He added that Nesvold will work closely with all parts of the bank that are in the wealth management business, from Emigrant Partners to its various trust companies and its high-net-worth-businesses.

“This move to Emigrant is a long time in the making,” Nesvold said in an interview Tuesday morning, adding that it was a difficult decision to leave Cresset.

“I have a long relationship with Emigrant and Howard,” she said. “We talked about it for years, and this is the moment where it finally came together.”

Nesvold said she would take her time to settle into the organization and assess the various businesses and opportunities before potentially tinkering with the formula for RIA acquisitions used by Emigrant Partners. According to the company, Emigrant Partners has invested more than $530 million of capital in 30 wealth and asset management companies over its 17-year investing history.

“Part of my role well be to see what else we can do across Emigrant and its family office platform,” Nesvold said. “And another part is to cultivate and elevate the story.”