Cresset Names Advisors For Southwest Region

Editorial Staff

27 October 2021

Cresset Asset Management has appointed advisors Stuart Birdt and Amy MacLeod as wealth advisors, based in Santa Barbara, California.

They previously served as wealth managers with Manchester Capital Management in Santa Barbara.

Birdt and MacLeod will work with Cresset clients throughout the western US. Cresset recently brought in former Goldman Sachs advisor Sarah Marriott to serve as managing director, wealth advisor in the Los Angeles region.

“As Cresset continues to expand in the West, Amy and Stuart are exactly the type of talented advisors who can share Cresset’s boutique family office experience with CEO founders, entrepreneurs, and multi-generational families of wealth in the region,” Doug Regan, founding partner and co-chairman of Cresset, said.

Birdt brings more than 30 years of global investment experience to Cresset. While at Manchester Capital Management, he was responsible for managing the investment portfolios and financial relationships for the firm’s family office clients. Prior to Manchester Capital, he was an investment officer and portfolio manager at a New York-based single-family office. Birdt began his career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs.

MacLeod is responsible for managing clients’ investment portfolios at Cresset, while also providing guidance on estate planning, wealth transfer strategies, and philanthropy. Prior to Cresset, MacLeod spent 13 years with Manchester Capital, servicing all aspects of family office relationships and helping to implement investment solutions for clients who want to align their values with their investment portfolios. She also has experience of practicing law in California and Colorado.

Cresset has been busy in recent months. In late September it agreed to tie the knot with Berman Capital Advisors , building a multi-family office with $20 billion of assets under management. In June 2018 Cresset caused a stir and signaled its growth ambitions when it hired Michael Cole – formerly president and founder of Ascent Private Capital Management – as the CEO of its new family office arm. A team of former Ascent senior figures also joined him. In the following months Cole rapidly built out the business across the US, including in such fast-growing markets as Florida – which appears astute given the influx of HNW individuals to that part of the US. Cole left Cresset in June 2020; he resurfaced as managing partner at R360, an “invitation-only league of strategic wealth creators” for people with at least $100 million in net wealth.