Cresset, the Chicago-based wealth firm, is pursuing a combination with National Advisors Trust (NAT), the Leawood, Kansas-based trust company, WealthManagement.com reported on Oct. 5. The outlet's headline framed the aim as a $13.1 billion trust business, the sum of the two firms' trust assets as described in its coverage.
On structure, WealthManagement.com reported that Cresset plans to fold its existing $5.4 billion trust business into the $7.7 billion NAT platform. If the transaction is completed, Cresset would become a client of NAT, the outlet reported, while also investing in the firm to keep growing its base of external advisor clients and pursuing acquisitions. The reported material does not give a purchase price, an ownership split or a closing date.
Cresset would move its trust business onto NAT's platform and draw on NAT's national trust charter, infrastructure, technology and experience, rather than run two separate platforms, according to WealthManagement.com. The deal would also let Cresset offer clients access to trust services through a national trust charter.
NAT was founded in 2001, WealthManagement.com reported, and oversees $7.7 billion in trust assets under administration for independent advisors, institutions and families. It also runs a white-label program. NAT's own website describes it as one of the largest independent national trust companies, with roughly $8 billion in assets under administration and more than 400 RIA firms. The difference from the $7.7 billion figure likely reflects the timing of the two sources, though neither explains it.
Institutional Investor has reported that the company was set up to serve the clients of independent RIAs on a noncompetitive basis and is owned by its adviser partners, with 82 firms signing up to found the chartered federal savings bank as a thrift. That ownership model makes the reported plan for Cresset to invest in NAT notable, though the sources reviewed do not say how an investment would interact with the adviser-partner ownership.
Cresset was founded in 2017 by entrepreneurs Eric Becker and Avy Stein, according to the firm's website, which lists its headquarters in Chicago. The site says Cresset reported more than $260 billion in assets under management and advisement as of July 1, 2026. Susie Cranston is the firm's CEO, according to a July Morningstar-hosted press release. Last year, Byteseu reported, Cresset added Monticello Associates, an institutional consulting firm serving foundations, endowments and family offices that was described as having $124 billion.
Byteseu reported that Citywire RIA first reported the Cresset-NAT deal. Family Wealth Report has noted that Cresset's assets trail those of industry leaders such as Creative Planning, Mariner and Hightower, a gap that makes acquisitions and infrastructure partnerships part of how the firm competes. The deal's progress, including any regulatory steps or definitive terms, was not detailed in the sources reviewed.