Entrusted with $1.6 trillion in client assets (consisting of assets under supervision, brokerage assets and Marcus deposits), Goldman Sachs’ wealth management is a colossus of the private banking world. Drawing on over a century and a half of experience, it leverages its resources, investment platform, global network and lending capacity to deliver a host of tailored solutions to clients.
A key focus is the ultra-high-net-worth space and key constituents – notably family offices, endowments and foundations – where account size ranges from $10 million to well over $1 billion and averages out at $70 million. More than 1,000 private wealth advisers help clients across the world figure out their philanthropic ambitions, create and oversee trusts, build a lasting portfolio, navigate complex tax codes and much, much more.
No one knows the business better than Tucker York, global head of Goldman Sachs Wealth Management, and a member of the firm’s management committee. Talking to Euromoney after the Wall Street giant won the award for the world’s best private bank, he was quick to outline the scale of its many achievements, and the opportunities that lie ahead.
“We are not looked upon internally as distribution,” York says. “We are seen as a separate, independent business that’s absolutely part of Goldman Sachs and proud to be. We are in effect the largest client Goldman Sachs has. That allows us to think from the client’s perspective: What can we do for them? What set of services fits them just right?
“It isn’t a case of: ‘Oh, I have something to sell.’ It’s much more than that. We ask what we can do for that client today, how we allocate capital, how we go about helping them with long-term wealth planning or family governance and tax planning, with legacy issues.”
At the end of the day, he says, what Goldman Sachs Wealth Management aspires to be is each client’s “most trusted adviser”.
This means having scale and being able to leverage its network. Goldman Sachs Wealth Management is a truly global operator, with offices across the Americas, Asia and the fast-growing EMEA region. It also connotes being able to deliver to clients not just the full breadth and depth of Goldman Sachs Wealth Management’s service offering, but also of Goldman Sachs the global financial-services giant. “That,” York adds, “is a key differentiator.”
Delivering across the wealth spectrum is key. Goldman Sachs Apex is a dedicated coverage team that provides large, sophisticated and increasingly global family offices with access to institutional deal-flow, private market expertise and the full range of Goldman Sachs services. Apex today comprises a team of over 20 specialists in New York, Singapore, San Francisco, Paris, Zurich, London, Dubai and Hong Kong, plus a Latin America coverage team that targets clients in Brazil, Mexico and Chile. The platform delivers everything from private placements to M&A opportunities, and minority stake sales to family-office advisory.
No demographic matters more than its growing army of ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) clients. “We spend no time worrying whether there’s an opportunity here,” here, York says firmly. “We know there’s a huge opportunity, and though we’re already number one in the UHNW business, industry fragmentation means there is still huge scope to add market share.”
Goldman Sachs Wealth Management is a truly global operator, with offices across the Americas, Asia and the fast-growing EMEA region
Goldman Sachs connects UHNWs to any number of internal services, as required. If they need to build a trust to last 100 years, Goldman Sachs Trust Company is the place to go, a full-service corporate fiduciary managing more than $70 billion in assets at the end of 2024. Its equity structuring group delivers tailored solutions across a variety of vehicles – listed options, structured notes, block trades. The In the Lead initiative gives female clients access to an inspiring community of accomplished women. And sports and entertainment solutions helps clients buy sports teams and ensures athletes wind down careers with money in the bank.
York says Goldman Sachs Wealth Management’s longstanding focus on the ultra-wealthy space has enabled it to be the hirer of choice in the industry. “We’ve not only been able to recruit great talent, but to retain it too, which explains our incredibly low turnover.”
Half of its wealth managers have been at the firm for more than a decade, and a client-to-adviser ratio of 25:1 is kept deliberately low in order, the company says, to “become completely immersed in our clients’ worlds.” The top 10% of client advisers have on average been at the firm for at least 25 years. “That’s a super-important thing,” York adds, “because this business really is just the net present value of many long-term relationships.”
The private bank also serves high-net-worth (HNW) clients via Goldman Sachs Ayco, a 50-year-old business that targets corporate executives. Each client gets a dedicated adviser who acts as their personal chief financial officer, guiding them through financial challenges – tax planning, insurance, cashflow forecasting, estate planning. “This is a very important part of our franchise,” York says. “Not every Ayco client starts out as a UHNW, but many are certainly on that path. Our aim is to take care of them and their families.” The team works in tandem with corporations, with the aim of taking long-term financial care of key executives.
Perfecting wealth management is no mean feat. It’s an intensely personal business that gains in efficiency when operated at scale. Only the very best get it right – those with the most efficient and effective global networks and the best staff, able to deliver across the wealth spectrum services ranging from philanthropic advisory to alternatives, succession planning to estate planning. Congratulations to Goldman Sachs Wealth Management, a worthy winner of the award for the world’s best private bank in 2025.
