Cresset Hires Lazard Workforce Advising on $1.1 Billion

Cresset, a Chicago-based RIA overseeing greater than $260 billion in consumer belongings, has recruited a duo who had been advising on round $1.1 billion at Lazard Asset Administration. 

Christopher P. Tiano and Nicholas W. Smith joined Cresset in Los Angeles and New York, respectively. They moved on June 23, based on registration data. 

Tiano had been with Lazard for about two years, having joined in July 2024 from Focus Monetary Companions, the place he had led its consumer referral community. Earlier than that, he had labored as a enterprise improvement director at institutional-focused RIA Glenmede, based on his LinkedIn profile. 

Smith, who had additionally been with Lazard for about two years, labored at a belief firm earlier than he first registered as an advisor at Merrill Lynch in 2021.

A spokesperson for Lazard didn’t instantly return a request for remark. Whereas it’s principally identified for its funding financial institution and $259 billion asset administration enterprise, Lazard Wealth oversaw round $8.four billion as of December 2025, based on regulatory filings. 

For Cresset, the rent is the most recent in a development push being led by Susie Cranston, a former First Republic Financial institution govt who took over as Chief Govt Officer in April. Cranston changed co-founders Eric Becker and Avy Stein. It final month recruited a billion-dollar personal banker from JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Denver. 

Cresset is majority-owned by its workers and purchasers with a minority funding from personal fairness corporations Constellation Wealth Capital and Blue Owl Capital, which additionally owns a bit of Constellation. 

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