Wealth, kept quietly for generations

Private wealth for forty families in Essex County, New Jersey, since 1994.

Est. 1994

Fee-only fiduciary

(973) 555-0148 Montclair, New Jersey

The firm

We look after forty families and their foundations from one office on Park Street. Our clients pay us, and nobody else does. We answer the telephone ourselves, and we plan for grandchildren as carefully as for next year.

Eleanor CressleyFounding partner

Inside the House

Most of the work happens in four rooms of an old carriage house in Montclair. You are welcome in all of them.

A panelled library at dusk: walnut shelves of old hardbound books, a brass lamp with a green shade lit on a leather-topped desk. — The libraryEvery family's file is kept here on paper as well as on screen.

A long walnut meeting table at blue hour, two black leather folders and a fountain pen laid square, a tall window of bare trees behind. — The Tuesday reviewTwo partners read each portfolio every week.

A handwritten letter on cream paper with a black fountain pen across it and an envelope beside it, on a dark leather desk in lamp light. — Letters by handEach quarter, every family receives a letter signed by its partner.

Two cognac leather armchairs angled toward each other by a tall window, two coffee cups on a small round table between them. — The garden roomWhere the first conversation happens, over coffee and with no slides.

A red brick carriage house with arched windows lit warm at dusk, a lamp post and a wet cobbled drive in front. — Park Street at duskThe lights are usually on until seven.

The whole family

One partner looks after all of it, with the same small team from the first meeting onward.

Investment management
Portfolios built for what a family wants its money to do, and reviewed every week.
Estate and trust planning
Worked through with your attorney, so the plan and the papers agree.
Tax coordination
With your accountant all year round, well before April.
Philanthropy
Family foundations and donor-advised funds, set up and run.
The next generation
Meetings for children and grandchildren, at the pace each family chooses.
The family business
Its value and its succession, and its sale when the time comes.

A woman with silver hair in a charcoal coat, seen from behind, stands at a tall window of a panelled study at dusk, looking out at bare trees.

The partner who answers

Eleanor opened the firm in 1994 in the carriage house behind her grandfather's bank on Park Street. Thirty-two years on, she still reads every family's portfolio on Tuesdays and still picks up the telephone when it rings.

Eleanor CressleyFounding partner

Chartered Financial Analyst
Certified Financial Planner

The partners

Thomas AldinePartner since 2003
Margit OyelaranPartner since 2009
James WhitcombePartner since 2016

A conversation, first

The first meeting costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Most families come to the office. We are glad to come to you.

Write to usoffice@cressleyhouse.example

The office

The Carriage House40 Park StreetMontclair, New Jersey 07042

(973) 555-0148

Monday to Friday, eight until six. Evenings by arrangement.

Directions