After more than 60 years of combined experience as private equity executives, entrepreneurs, and CEO founders, Avy Stein and Eric Becker came out of retirement to launch Cresset. As longtime family office clients themselves, their families simply weren’t receiving the level of sophisticated and holistic guidance they needed. They knew there had to be a better way. Below, Avy and Eric share more about why they founded Cresset and their vision to “reinvent the way clients experience wealth.”
You both had long, successful careers as private equity executives, entrepreneurs and CEO founders. What made you decide to come out of retirement and launch Cresset?
Avy: Well, as our wives like to say, we “flunked at retirement.” Seriously though, Eric and I had been making some private investments together, and we began discussing the multi-family offices and wealth management firms we’ve worked with and come across over the years. We agreed that none of them could fully deliver what we were looking for. We are life-long private equity guys and entrepreneurs. We know private investing and the outsized potential return it can deliver. We thought, “Why can’t we create a firm that marries our background in private markets with the comprehensive services of a true multi-family office?” From that Cresset was born. Our mantra from the beginning has been to “build the house we want to live in.”
Eric: As Avy says, we knew there had to be a better way. We initiated a year-long research study to explore what was out there to meet the needs of investors like us. The lack of options was glaring. We knew we could fill that gap. We knew we could offer investing—the way it should be—for families like ours.
From the start, our goal with Cresset was to build a firm to last 100+ years. We are in this for the long haul. You almost never get to do that when starting a new business. Since we started Cresset by funding it initially ourselves, we have been able to build an infrastructure to last for generations.
