Cresset’s rise from a family-led vision to one of the nation’s leading multifamily offices shows how purpose and culture can shape enduring organizations.

In this episode of the RIA Edge Podcast, host David Armstrong speaks with Eric Becker, co-founder and co-chairman of Cresset, about the firm’s mission to build a 100-year wealth management business focused on families, not just finances. Eric shares how Cresset was designed by clients, for clients, to combine investment excellence with family governance, education and community.

David and Eric explore how RIA principals and executives can avoid short-term thinking, especially amid the frenzy of day-to-day operational planning and the quest for the elusive “personalization with scale” client service model. Eric suggests lessons other RIA leaders can learn from his study of the world’s longest-surviving companies, which he captured in his recently published book The Long Game: A Playbook of the World’s Most Enduring Companies. 

David and Eric discuss:

• How Becker and his co-founder started Cresset because they couldn’t find a wealth management platform that met their own family’s needs, making them their own first two clients and fundamentally shaping their client-centric approach
• The goal to put the “family back into family office,” moving beyond investment management to include governance, education, health resources, concierge services and community
• Becker’s belief in pursuing “just the right amount of growth” and his four-pillar framework for managing expansion without sacrificing service quality or burning out teams—that includes culture, people, numbers and business model.
• Cresset’s unique employee-ownership model (60% employee-owned, 30% client-owned, 10% strategic investor) and how this structure aligns incentives for long-term thinking
• 100-Year Business Thinking: Drawing from his book The Long Game, Becker explains why building for longevity actually creates more valuable, attractive businesses and better serves clients who are also thinking generationally about their wealth.

Resources:

Listen to the RIA Edge Podcast on WealthManagement.com: https://bit.ly/3YVhfof 
Listen and Subscribe to the RIA Edge Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3RFXCPn 
Listen and Subscribe to the RIA Edge Podcast on Spotify: https://bit.ly/44Cbwd5 
Book: The Long Game: A Playbook of the World’s Most Enduring Companies by Eric Becker & Avy Stein - https://amzn.to/3WV6Idw 
 
Connect With David Armstrong:
 
WealthManagement.com: http://bit.ly/3RKHvyY 
LinkedIn: WealthManagement.com: https://bit.ly/3YkoRAv 
LinkedIn: David Armstrong: https://www.linkedin.com/in/djamesarmstrong/ 
Twitter: David Armstrong: https://twitter.com/djamesarmstrong 
LinkedIn: Informa: https://bit.ly/3leEF9g 

Connect With Eric Becker:

Cresset Capital - https://cressetcapital.com 
LinkedIn: Cresset - https://www.linkedin.com/company/cresset-capital/ 
LinkedIn: Eric Becker - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ebecker1 

About Our Guest:

Eric Becker is the Founder and Co-Chairman of Cresset, an award-winning multi-family office with more than $70 billion in assets under management. Alongside Founder and Co-Chairman, Avy Stein, Eric was one of Cresset’s first two clients. He and his team designed the firm to meet a specific need, and also for growth and sustainability; His desire to build a “100-year-old” firm led him to study some of the longest-running companies across different industries, and recently published The Long Game: A Playbook of the World’s Most Enduring Companies, which captures his observations on what they all have in common. 

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