Goldman Sachs plans to expand its private wealth management team in Australia to capture a boom in self-made multimillionaires and family wealth looking for global investments.
“We are absolutely looking to grow,” Jean-Paul Churchouse, the firm’s head of private wealth management for Southeast Asia and Australia, said in an interview. “We are looking to hire, but it’s really about finding the right people rather than hitting a target.”
Software giants Canva and Atlassian have minted a younger generation of entrepreneurs including Mike Cannon-Brookes, who are in lucrative targets for the wealth management giant.Credit: Bloomberg
Goldman now has around 13 people on the ground in Sydney and Melbourne, including eight advisers, targeting ultrarich clients that have at least $100 million of investable assets. It established this setup about four years ago, the only private wealth team that was set up in Asia-Pacific during this time, and said it’s only getting started.
The Wall Street bank is offering Australian investors access to the firm’s network of investment bankers around the world and staff with relationships on otherwise hard-to-access private deals. It’s seeking to get a slice of the wealth opportunity in the country, alongside other foreign banks such as UBS as well as domestic wealth management firms like LGT Crestone, which also target less affluent individuals.
Underpinning Goldman’s push is the years-long wealth creation from expanding family fortunes in areas such as technology. The number of family offices in Asia-Pacific has surpassed Europe and the speed of growth is expected to top North America by the end of the decade, a Deloitte survey showed last year.
In Australia, software giants Canva and Atlassian have minted a younger generation of entrepreneurs including Mike Cannon-Brookes, while older ultra-wealthy mining tycoons like Gina Rinehart and Andrew Forrest continue to feature among the country’s richest.
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“We’ve seen huge growth in family offices” in Australia, Churchouse said. “Once families generate meaningful wealth, they’re looking for professionals to manage that for them.”
Goldman’s white-glove offerings for the ultrarich include managing family office portfolios, providing access to specialist asset classes like private equity, and connecting clients with experts. The firm also arranges conferences for its clients and invites them to seminars on topics like philanthropy and climate change.
