David W. Karp

David W. Karp is Founding Partner PagnatoKarp and Senior Managing Director Cresset, a top family office and private wealth management firm with over $12.6 billion assets under management¹. David is a Barron's Top 1,200 Financial Advisor, ranked #8 in VA for 2021, and has more than 25 years of experience providing sound financial investment and wealth strategies. He is the primary point of contact for Family Office clients whom he has successfully advised through portfolio creation, implementation, due diligence and ongoing management. David also provides business owners with private and direct investment diligence, negotiation and structuring.

David previously worked through HighTower Advisors and spent 15 years with Merrill Lynch, where he was part of the Washington, D.C. Private Banking & Investment Group. David’s prior tenure also includes time with Morgan Stanley as a private portfolio manager, Jeffries & Company as an investment banking associate and Oppenheimer & Company as an equities research analyst.

In 2014, David was recognized as a fiduciary and quoted in Tony Robbins’ best-selling book, MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom, on the importance of the fiduciary standard in financial advisor/client relationships.

David is a member of the Washington D.C. Chapter of Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) and is active with the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia. David was a Founding Board Member for the Spookstock Foundation, whose mission is to provide support to the families of officers from the US special forces and intelligence communities who have died in the line of duty. In 2016, David helped PagnatoKarp to build a "Home of Hope" in the Dominican Republic for a family in need.

A recipient of The Abby Joel Butler Scholarship at American University, David attended the Kogod School of Business.