Cresset Recruits $2B UHNW Advisor From Baker Street
Cresset, a multi-family office and wealth manager with over $235 billion in assets under management and advisement, has added Heather Pelant as a managing director in the RIA’s San Francisco office. Pelant joins from Baker Street Advisors, where she managed about $2 billion in client assets.
“Cresset was built from the ground up to serve families with increasingly complex financial lives,” Cresset President Susie Cranston said in a statement. “Heather exemplifies the caliber of client-first fiduciary we seek—deeply experienced, culturally aligned and committed to delivering comprehensive advice tailored to each family’s objectives.”
Pelant works with ultra-high-net-worth families. Before joining Baker Street, she served as head of BlackRock’s direct investment business. She’s also the co-founder of Project Worth, an initiative designed to build women’s confidence around money, investing and wealth management.
“I was drawn not only to the firm’s multi-family office platform and long-term ownership structure, but also to its culture that values diverse perspectives in leadership,” Pelant said in a statement. “For many of the families I serve—including women who are founders, inheritors, and financial decision-makers—that depth of representation and alignment matters.”
The move follows news in December that Cresset added a team from Bernstein Private Wealth Management with $1.4 billion in assets.
In August, Cresset announced a merger with Monticello Associates, an institutionally focused advisory firm that administers over $124 billion in assets. The integration is now complete and “has been a great cultural and strategic fit,” according to a spokesperson.
The move mimics other large RIAs, such as Creative Planning, Mariner and Captrust, which have made acquisitions in recent months and years to add to their institutional- and 401(k)-focused practices.
Cresset is majority-owned by its employees, with a smaller stake held by clients. In 2024, the RIA sold a minority stake to Constellation Wealth Capital, a private equity company founded in 2023 by former Emigrant Partners CEO Karl Heckenberg to invest in RIAs. Constellation invested $150 million for less than 10% of Cresset’s equity.