In this episode of the RIA Edge Podcast, host David Armstrong speaks with Arthur Ambarik, CEO of Perigon Wealth Management, about the firm’s growth from a small Bay Area RIA into a multi-state, $12 billion firm with a partnership-driven model and large ambitions for the future.

Ambarik shares how cultural alignment shapes mergers, why specialization within firms is becoming a critical growth driver and how long-term thinking around talent and capital structure is redefining the future of wealth management firms.

Key takeaways:

• How Ambarik has led Perigon’s journey toward becoming a national RIA, starting with $150 million in assets when he joined the firm, to a $12 billion enterprise today, supporting teams across 16 states
• How intentional growth plans and a partnership-driven model have fueled the success
• How Perigon’s first equity-based acquisition in 2020 became a springboard for the future
• How he sees the role of the niche advisor driving future growth
• How the influx of private equity has impacted firms and the larger industry
• How Perigon sees technology as a tool for better segmenting client accounts profitably
• How he envisions RIAs becoming the go-to career choice for young talent, with firms driving talent generation and mentorship

Resources:

• Listen to the RIA Edge Podcast on WealthManagement.com
• Listen and Subscribe to the RIA Edge Podcast on Apple Podcasts
• Listen and Subscribe to the RIA Edge Podcast on Spotify

Connect With David Armstrong:

• WealthManagement.com
• LinkedIn: WealthManagement.com
• LinkedIn: David Armstrong
• Twitter: David Armstrong
• LinkedIn: Informa

Connect With Arthur Ambarik:

• Company: Perigon Wealth Management
• LinkedIn: Perigon Wealth Management
• LinkedIn: Arthur Ambarik

About Our Guest:

Arthur Ambarik, CFP, is Chief Executive Officer of Perigon Wealth Management. Under his leadership, Perigon has grown to over $10.2 billion* in assets under management and expanded its national footprint through strategic acquisitions and organic growth.

Named CEO of the Year in 2024 by WealthManagement.com, Arthur has played a pivotal role in Perigon’s rapid ascent in the industry. He was also recognized on the Forbes Best-in-State Wealth Advisors 2024 list for California.

Thanks to his leadership, Perigon has earned national recognition, including:

• Forbes America’s Top RIA Firms
• Newsweek America’s Top Financial Advisory Firms
• USA Today Best Financial Advisory Firms
• Financial Advisor Magazine’s:
• Fastest-Growing RIAs
• Top RIAs
• RIA Discretionary and Non-Discretionary AUM Rankings
• San Francisco Business Times: Bay Area’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies

Arthur brings more than 20 years of experience to the role, with a career spanning advisory and operational leadership at Ameriprise and LPL. He is also a member of the Financial Advisor IQ Leadership Council.

Arthur holds a B.A. in Economics from Williams College.

How do leaders of wealth management firms balance advisor independence with the need for centralized efficiency? What does it take to build a platform that serves both traditional RIAs and advisors seeking a more integrated model?

In this episode of the RIA Edge Podcast, host David Armstrong interviews Larry Restieri, CEO of Hightower Advisors, about Hightower’s evolution from a wirehouse lift-out platform to a comprehensive wealth management firm managing over $300 billion in assets.

He discusses the launch of Hightower Signature Wealth, a new direct-to-consumer offering designed to leverage the Hightower brand while maintaining support for independent advisory practices.

Key Points:

• How Larry’s 25-year Goldman Sachs background shaped his approach to wealth management and his leadership at Hightower
• Why Hightower Signature Wealth was launched as a firm within a firm, and how Restieri thinks the model strengthens both brand reach and advisor support
• How he views the balance between advisor independence and an efficiently centralized middle- and back-office, while maintaining a personalized client experience
• The influence of private equity, the long growth runway that remains for RIAs, and his thinking around future consolidation in the space
• The challenge of an aging advisor population and the need to attract new and diverse talent into the profession

Resources:

• Listen to the RIA Edge Podcast on WealthManagement.com
• Listen and Subscribe to the RIA Edge Podcast on Apple Podcasts
• Listen and Subscribe to the RIA Edge Podcast on Spotify

Connect With David Armstrong:

• WealthManagement.com
• LinkedIn: WealthManagement.com
• LinkedIn: David Armstrong
• Twitter: David Armstrong
• LinkedIn: Informa

Connect With Larry Restieri:

• Website: Hightower Advisors
• LinkedIn: Hightower Advisors
• LinkedIn: Larry Restieri

About Our Guest:

Larry Restieri is Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors at Hightower, a national wealth management firm that empowers financial advisors to deliver sophisticated investment and financial services to clients. He joined the firm in June 2025, bringing with him decades of experience in wealth management and a history of scaling businesses and driving growth.

Prior to Hightower, Larry was a partner at Goldman Sachs and served as CEO of its AYCO business, which specializes in workplace financial planning and private wealth advisory services. During his tenure, he led efforts to modernize AYCO’s operations, deepen client relationships, and accelerate business expansion.

Larry spent 25 years at Goldman Sachs in a variety of leadership roles across its wealth and asset management divisions. Before joining Goldman Sachs in 2000, he practiced law at Finn Dixon & Herling LLP in Stamford, Connecticut, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in New York City.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a Juris Doctor degree from Fordham University School of Law, where he served as an editor of the Fordham Law Review.

Outside of work, Larry is a lifelong musician and plays lead guitar in a classic rock cover band.

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:

• Listen to the RIA Edge Podcast on WealthManagement.com
• Listen and Subscribe to the RIA Edge Podcast on Apple Podcasts
• Listen and Subscribe to the RIA Edge Podcast on Spotify
• Book: The Long Game: A Playbook of the World’s Most Enduring Companies by Eric Becker & Avy Stein

Connect With David Armstrong:

• WealthManagement.com
• LinkedIn: WealthManagement.com
• LinkedIn: David Armstrong
• Twitter: David Armstrong
• LinkedIn: Informa

Connect With Eric Becker:

• Cresset Capital
• LinkedIn: Cresset
• LinkedIn: 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.