Tag: Family Office
RIA Edge Podcast: Building an RIA on a Family Office Foundation with Andy Busser

RIA Edge Podcast: Building an RIA on a Family Office Foundation with Andy Busser

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In this episode of the RIA Edge Podcast, host David Armstrong speaks with Andy Busser, president and CEO of Pitcairn, about how the century-old firm has evolved from a single-family office into an RIA serving approximately 150 families and overseeing roughly $12 billion on their behalf.

Andy shares how Pitcairn combines investment management with trust, tax, accounting, insurance, family education and governance services to support families across generations. He also explains why the firm prioritizes character, curiosity and emotional intelligence when building its team, how it approaches growth and alternative investments, and how artificial intelligence is creating more time for deeper analysis and stronger client relationships.

Andy discusses:

  • How shared single-family office services combine investments, trusts, tax, insurance, accounting and family support
  • Why Pitcairn selectively evaluates new families to ensure long-term cultural and relationship fit
  • How hiring employees for optimism, curiosity, empathy, work quality and self-awareness shapes the firm’s culture
  • Why employee engagement is the firm’s leading leadership metric and how it relates to revenue and EBITDA growth
  • How the firm is exploring the use of AI to speed up analysis and planning, and create more time for client relationships and staff development

Resources:

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Connect With Andy Busser:

About Our Guest:

As President and CEO of Pitcairn, Andy guides the firm’s culture and operations, building on a century of gold standard experiences for clients and employees. Andy’s curiosity and energy set the tone for a team focused on deep relationships, integrated service, technological innovation, and continuous learning.

Before becoming CEO in 2023, Andy served as Pitcairn’s President of Family Office, leading the firm’s relationship managers, analysts, and client communications professionals. He came to Pitcairn in 2015 from Symphony Capital, a healthcare-focused manager of private equity and hedge funds, where he was a partner. Earlier in his career, he was a management consultant with The Wilkerson Group/Wilkerson Partners.

Andy advocates for helping families become empowered stewards of wealth across generations, a topic he speaks and writes about often. He presents regularly at events hosted by the Family Wealth Alliance, The UHNW Institute, and Family Business Magazine’s Transitions and Align conferences, and he writes a Forbes column on family office leadership and strategy. His perspective has appeared in Barron’s, Bloomberg, Crain Currency, and InvestmentNews, and on NPR.

He also represents Pitcairn in the Wigmore Association, a global collaboration among the chief executives and chief investment officers of independent family offices located in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Brazil, and Mexico.

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RIA Edge Podcast: Building an Integrated Wealth Management Firm with Mike LaMena

RIA Edge Podcast: Building an Integrated Wealth Management Firm with Mike LaMena

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In this episode of the RIA Edge Podcast, host David Armstrong speaks with Mike LaMena, CEO of Wealthspire, about how the firm is bringing together private wealth, institutional advisory, retirement services and family office capabilities as it continues to grow.

Mike shares how Wealthspire structures advisor teams around deeper client relationships, uses a “cross-solving” approach to connect needs across different parts of the firm, and invests in areas such as trust, estate planning, tax and technology. He also explains how M&A, advisor education, international expansion and a long-term approach to profitability are shaping Wealthspire’s next stage of growth.

Mike discusses:

  • How Wealthspire connects private wealth, institutional, retirement and family office services around client needs
  • Why advisor teams need access to trust, estate, investment, tax and lifestyle specialists across the firm
  • How “cross-solving” can connect institutional relationships and private wealth opportunities in both directions
  • Why Wealthspire targets 30% to 35% margins while continuing to invest in organic growth, M&A and capabilities
  • Where Wealthspire sees room to grow, including integrated tax, Canada, the UK and cross-border client needs

Resources:

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Connect With Mike LaMena:

About Our Guest:

Mike LaMena is the Chief Executive Officer of Wealthspire, bringing nearly 30 years of experience leading and scaling global wealth management organizations. Since becoming CEO in 2019, he has guided Wealthspire through a period of significant growth and transformation, helping evolve the firm into an integrated independent platform serving individuals, families, institutions, retirement plans, and businesses across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

Mike is known for his people-first approach and his belief in the power of thoughtful guidance and strong relationships to create meaningful impact. Under his leadership, Wealthspire has expanded its capabilities and national footprint while fostering a culture centered on collaboration, innovation, and long-term relationships. He has championed initiatives focused on advisor empowerment, philanthropy, inclusion, and purposeful growth.

Before joining one of Wealthspire’s predecessor firms in 2017 as President and COO, Mike served as President and COO of HighTower Advisors, helping scale the firm from a startup into a nationally recognized wealth management platform. Earlier in his career, he served in multiple senior leadership roles at Morgan Stanley across New York and Hong Kong. Before beginning his career in financial services, Mike served as a volunteer high school teacher at Mount St. Michael Academy in the Bronx, reflecting his long-standing commitment to education and mentorship.

Mike is a frequent industry speaker and host of Wealthspire’s Great Aspirations podcast, which explores leadership, purpose, and legacy through conversations with entrepreneurs, athletes, and changemakers. In 2024, he was named “CEO of the Year” at the RIA Intel Awards. In addition to serving on the board for Wealthspire, he also serves on the Advisory Council for the Wealth Management program at Columbia University School of Professional Studies, supporting the development of the next generation of industry leaders.

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RIA Edge Podcast: Cresset’s Eric Becker on the Power of Purpose-Driven Growth

RIA Edge Podcast: Cresset’s Eric Becker on the Power of Purpose-Driven Growth

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Cresset’s rise from a family-led vision to one of the nation’s leading multifamily offices shows how purpose and culture can shape enduring organizations.

In this episode of the RIA Edge Podcast, host David Armstrong speaks with Eric Becker, co-founder and co-chairman of Cresset, about the firm’s mission to build a 100-year wealth management business focused on families, not just finances. Eric shares how Cresset was designed by clients, for clients, to combine investment excellence with family governance, education and community.

David and Eric explore how RIA principals and executives can avoid short-term thinking, especially amid the frenzy of day-to-day operational planning and the quest for the elusive “personalization with scale” client service model. Eric suggests lessons other RIA leaders can learn from his study of the world’s longest-surviving companies, which he captured in his recently published book The Long Game: A Playbook of the World’s Most Enduring Companies. 

David and Eric discuss:

  • How Becker and his co-founder started Cresset because they couldn’t find a wealth management platform that met their own family’s needs, making them their own first two clients and fundamentally shaping their client-centric approach
  • The goal to put the “family back into family office,” moving beyond investment management to include governance, education, health resources, concierge services and community
  • Becker’s belief in pursuing “just the right amount of growth” and his four-pillar framework for managing expansion without sacrificing service quality or burning out teams—that includes culture, people, numbers and business model.
  • Cresset’s unique employee-ownership model (60% employee-owned, 30% client-owned, 10% strategic investor) and how this structure aligns incentives for long-term thinking
  • 100-Year Business Thinking: Drawing from his book The Long Game, Becker explains why building for longevity actually creates more valuable, attractive businesses and better serves clients who are also thinking generationally about their wealth.

Resources:

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Connect With Eric Becker:

About Our Guest:

Eric Becker is the Founder and Co-Chairman of Cresset, an award-winning multi-family office with more than $70 billion in assets under management. Alongside Founder and Co-Chairman, Avy Stein, Eric was one of Cresset’s first two clients. He and his team designed the firm to meet a specific need, and also for growth and sustainability; His desire to build a “100-year-old” firm led him to study some of the longest-running companies across different industries, and recently published The Long Game: A Playbook of the World’s Most Enduring Companies, which captures his observations on what they all have in common. 

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