Updated:
Presti & Naegele
Andrew Presti started the firm that became Presti & Naegele in January 1982 while still at St.
Presti & Naegele
Andrew Presti started the firm that became Presti & Naegele in January 1982 while still at St. John's University, originally operating as LaPollo & Presti before Wayne Naegele joined in 1989 to form the current entity. Today the firm functions as a multi-family office headquartered on the fifth floor of a commercial building it occupies at 225 West 35th Street in Manhattan, with additional offices in Stamford and on Long Island. Presti retains senior partner control, supported by a partnership group that expanded methodically: Steve Grgas became partner in 2013, Salvatore Russo in 2015, Brian Whelan in 2017, Don Sager in 2019, and Annemarie Aguanno in 2021. The firm weaves family capital deployment through its accounting infrastructure. Confirmed investment activity concentrates in North American real estate, with the Manhattan headquarters property standing as the most visible on-balance-sheet asset. The practice delivers tax compliance, client accounting, advisory, forensics, and valuations across more than 20 named industries including real estate, construction, finance, hospitality, and technology. QuickBooks implementation is a distinct revenue line—Presti & Naegele fields over 30 Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors, claiming to be the largest QuickBooks consulting firm in the Tri-State area. Sixty-plus professionals operate across the New York, Connecticut, and Long Island offices, serving a stated client base exceeding 10,000. The partnership group is the core governance layer; recent scale moves include the combination with Berkow Schecter & Company in December 2022 and the integration of Tax First, Inc. and principal John Johansen in December 2023. January 2024 saw the retirement of co-namesake Wayne Naegele after 33 years, leaving Andrew Presti as the sole founder-level senior partner. Adjacent vehicles include professional memberships in the AICPA and NYSSCPA, while philanthropic involvement is channeled through Futures in Education, the ShareLove.Fund, and Village Preservation. The firm's architecture differs from a standard RIA or family office because it layers family capital allocation on top of a high-volume accounting and business-advisory engine. The tax practice creates a continuous client pipeline that can surface real estate and operating-company investment opportunities, giving Presti & Naegele a deal-sourcing mechanism that pure family offices do not have. Succession appears concentrated in Andrew Presti, whose founder role and co-founding stake in First Central Savings Bank anchor both the firm's governance and its access to regional commercial-property deal flow.
General information
Firm type
Multi Family Office
Year founded
1982
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
New York
Corporate office
225 West 35th Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10001, United States
Additional offices
Stamford, CT, United States · Syosset, NY, United States
Principals
Andrew Presti
Founder & Senior Partner
Steve R. Grgas
Partner
Salvatore V. Russo
Partner
Brian M. Whelan
Partner
Annemarie Aguanno
Partner
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
How does Presti & Naegele source family-office investment opportunities?
Presti & Naegele uses its accounting and tax advisory practice as a sourcing engine. The firm serves over 10,000 clients and covers more than 20 industries, creating visibility into privately held businesses, real estate transactions, and operating-company investments across the New York metropolitan area. Founder Andrew Presti's co-founding role at First Central Savings Bank adds a regional community-banking network that further surfaces commercial-property and local-business opportunities.
What investment types does the family office side of the firm focus on?
The firm's disclosed investment posture concentrates on direct commercial real estate within North America, with its Manhattan headquarters at 225 West 35th Street serving as its most visible owned asset. Sources do not disclose fund commitments, third-party manager allocations, or non-real-estate direct investments, so the family-office balance sheet appears to be property-centric.
Who controls investment decisions at the firm?
Andrew Presti, as Founder and Senior Partner, is the named controlling principal. The partnership group—Steve Grgas, Salvatore Russo, Brian Whelan, Don Sager, Annemarie Aguanno, and newly named partners Thomas Zanata and Lisa Varela—forms the senior governance layer, but sources do not specify whether investment decisions are made solely by Presti, by a committee, or by individual family mandates.
Is Presti & Naegele structured as a single family office or a multi-family office?
It operates as a multi-family office, serving the financial oversight, tax, and investment needs of multiple families through a common accounting and advisory platform. The firm does not publicly name the families it serves, consistent with the discretion expected of a family-office practice embedded inside a professional services firm.
How is the accounting practice separated from the family-office investment activities?
No public disclosure describes a legal or operational separation between the accounting partnership and the family-office investment activities. The firm presents itself as one integrated entity, with the partnership group presiding over both the professional-services revenue lines and the family capital allocation. Structures for client asset protection versus proprietary capital are not detailed in available sources.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
Need institutional-grade insight on family offices?
Altss delivers:
Prefer a guided tour?
We’ll walk you through: