Liz Nesvold has refocused on M&A after a brief stint as president of Cresset, joining Emigrant in two capacities to accelerate the strategic growth program within the firm’s wealth management arm.

It was officially announced this week that Nesvold has joined Emigrant Bank as vice chair and Emigrant Partners, a leading minority investors in RIAs, as chair, after leaving Cresset earlier this month after less than a year at the firm.

Before her 9-month tenure there, Nesvold was considered one of the top investment bankers in the RIA space, first running her own M&A firm beginning in 2007 and then working for Raymond James beginning in 2019.

Her position at Cresset, a new one at the time for the firm with $40 billion in assets under management, involved some M&A but also included overseeing integration, the firm’s strategy and its family office model.

Some of the experience gained through that more expansive role will most likely benefit Nesvold, as she will work closely with all areas of the bank that support Emigrant’s wealth management business, including Emigrant Partners and two units serving high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients, Summitas and Personal Risk Management Solutions, a press release said.

“I’m thrilled to have finally recruited Liz to the team after collaborating with her on multiple transactions over the past decade,” said Emigrant's chairman and CEO, Howard Milstein, in the release.

According to the release, Emigrant Bank is the largest family-owned and operated bank in the country, and Emigrant Partners is a strategic partner that makes non-voting minority investments in wealth and asset managers.

Emigrant Partners currently has 20 partner RIA firms with more than $100 billion in AUM collectively, with $400 million in revenues. In the last 17 years, it has invested more than $530 million in 30 wealth and asset managers.

“As the wealth management industry becomes increasingly complex, now more than ever, leaders of wealth management firms need strategic partners who understand their businesses—especially the sanctity of the fiduciary duty owed to clients—and the opportunities ahead,” Nesvold said in the release. “Emigrant’s platform is uniquely aligned to sponsor independence and help drive the next wave of growth for this industry.”

In her capacity as vice chair of Emigrant Bank, Nesvold will work closely with John Hart, vice chair, responsible for the firm’s three private trust companies. And in her capacity as chair of Emigrant Partners, she will partner with Jenny Souza, president and CEO.

The two women have known each other for 25 years, as Nesvold recruited Souza into investment banking right out of college, Souza said.

“As advisors to wealth and asset managers in the decades since, we’ve collaborated professionally many times,” she said in the release. “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work closely with Liz again, and to leverage the depth of her industry expertise and reach, which are second to none, to the benefit of the EP team and our network of partner firms.”