Fifty heirs, one classroom

Goldman Sachs gathered about 50 Gen Zers from ultra-rich families in New York for two weeks in July. All were 18 to 23, all multimillionaires.

An hour on one newspaper

One morning was spent almost entirely on how to digest Wall Street Journal articles: what to read, what to skip, what the market news actually means.

Afternoons on the floor

Crash courses followed. A Goldman managing director walked them through an equity trader's job, they toured trading floors mid-deal, then covered hedge fund basics and portfolio diversification.

Who these families are

Many attendees are children of Goldman private wealth clients, a division whose average account tops $90 million and serves fortunes from $10 million past $1 billion.

“A fundamental reason we created this program was to allow the young adult children of our families the opportunity to become more confident.”

A full day on presence

LifeHikes CEO Bill Hoogterp ran an eight-hour session where pairs acted out job interviews and group projects. Vice chairman Rob Kaplan led a separate talk on leadership and ownership.

“They're not always what you learn in school.”

Watches, jewelry, real estate

Christie's came in to teach luxury watches, jewelry, and handbags, alongside sessions on the art and collectibles market. Week two covered real estate and infrastructure.

Sports teams, crypto, AI

They studied sports ownership economics, the strategy Bezos used to buy into Liverpool F.C. AI surfaced in nearly every session, both as an investment and as something to live alongside.

“I'm sure that some of our client families will be going back wanting to have a career that interlinks between investing in sports.”