Cresset adds $1.4B team in Houston as RIA recruiting push continues

Cresset is adding another billion-dollar advisory group to its platform, expanding its Houston office with a trio of former Bernstein Private Wealth Management advisors who oversaw $1.4 billion in client assets.

The team is led by advisors Michael Ellington, Zach Gardner, and Danique van der Velden, who work with business owners, entrepreneurs and multi-generational wealthy families on what the firm describes as a holistic family office experience. Their practice centers on pre- and post-liquidity event planning, public and private investment management, and estate and tax strategies for ultra-high-net-worth clients.

Prior to joining Cresset, Ellington had been affiliated with Bernstein for more than a quarter-century, according to his BrokerCheck profile.

In a Tuesday statement, Cresset president Susie Cranston said the group has “built distinguished careers providing entrepreneurs and ultra-high-net-worth families with a holistic and personalized family office experience” and that they share the firm’s “values and commitment to creating enduring wealth and lasting legacies for our clients.”

Ellington framed the move as a cultural and strategic fit for the team’s client base. “Cresset is the perfect home for us to provide successful families with the comprehensive family office services that they expect today,” he said, highlighting Cresset's “vision to build a 100+-year firm" and "the alignment between employees, leadership, and clients” as points that hit home.

The Houston addition follows another sizeable recruitment move in November, when the firm brought on a Goldman Sachs breakaway team led by Jamie Gilbert, Jean Wright, and Max Ripans. The ex-wirehouse threesome, who managed more than $1.8 billion in assets, expanded Cresset’s presence in Atlanta while planting a flag in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Also last month, the firm tapped Albert Leshinsky as managing director and head of corporate development. Previously serving a similar role at Clearstead Advisors, Leshinsky is tasked with leading a national effort to recruit and integrate top-performing advisory teams. At the time of his appointment, Cresset had been steadily pushing to expand nationally, spending the past eight years wooing and attracting culturally aligned advisory teams.

Earlier this summer, Cresset unveiled plans for a strategic combination with Monticello Associates, an institutional consulting firm to foundations, endowments and family offices that oversees $124 billion in non-discretionary assets. Together, the firms say they will approach nearly $200 billion in assets once the deal closes; Cresset alone reported managing more than $78 billion as of Nov. 1.