This new Goldman Sachs partner is leading the bank's strategy with young heirs and founders
Brittany Boals Moeller, one of Goldman Sachs' newly minted partners, didn't picture a career in finance when she joined the bank 17 years ago. She grew up in Jonesboro, Arkansas, where her parents were professors at the local university. After graduating from New York University in 2007, she thought she would work at Goldman Sachs for a few years to save up for graduate school, perhaps to study public policy or become a lawyer. But even when the financial crisis hit, which was an opportune time to go back to school, she didn't want to leave.
"At Goldman, you are given tremendous responsibility and opportunity young in your career if you prove yourself able," she told Business Insider in an interview. "I've never once been bored, and so it's an easy choice to stay."
The 39-year-old is based in Atlanta and runs the Southeast region of Goldman Sach's private wealth division. While wealth management clients skew older, the division has a pipeline of rich millennial founders who work with the investment banking arm. Boals Moeller said these clients in their 30s and 40s are more likely to want more than investment advice, desiring services like concierge healthcare and bill pay that make their lives easier. To keep these clients loyal, she leads an initiative to cater to younger clients, including heirs and self-made entrepreneurs, and another that focuses on women customers.
"They're busy. They want simplicity. They need good people around them to help," she said.
During the dealmaking drought, the wealth management business gained new prominence. "Quite frankly, private wealth management at Goldman Sachs has never been as much of a focus for the firm as it is today," division cohead John Mallory told BI in 2023.
Boals Moeller said the business's current stature is the result of investments more than a decade in the making. She served as chief of staff to wealth management head Tucker York during the financial crisis. Around 2010, she embarked on a listening tour of every wealth office. The advisor feedback led to the bank expanding its offerings beyond investment and tax planning advice.
"We knew this going way back, and it certainly continues today, which is we are not purely an investment solution for our clients," she said. "Investments are critical and core to our work, but increasingly we're seeing that with the next generation of wealth owners today, they are seeking simplicity and solutions in all aspects of their life."
Goldman Sachs' family office offering, Apex, launched a few years later. Now, the division offers chief financial officer services to help clients with not just estate planning but also lifestyle services like cybersecurity.
Catering to these younger clients, whether they are old-money heirs or startup founders celebrating their first windfall, requires meeting them where they are. That usually isn't over a steak and martini lunch or 18 holes at the golf course. What entices these clients more, Boals Moeller said, is getting to meet like-minded people.
Goldman Sachs holds events and conferences, often with star-studded lineups or in scenic locales. In August, Boals Moeller hosted a reception in Atlanta with singer Ciara and Marc-Kwesi Farrell, the founder of a rum brand that provided custom cocktails. In October 2023, Goldman Sachs hosted a conference in Deer Valley where billionaire Patrón founder John Paul DeJoria talked about keeping a business empire in the family. Sustainability and sports are particularly interesting to this demographic, with Goldman Sachs hosting a tour of a waste-to-clean-energy power plant in Copenhagen and bringing in Michelle Hynik, president of women's football club Utah Royals, to the Deer Valley summit.
Advisors also introduce clients to each other when appropriate, such as a pre-IPO founder to an entrepreneur who has already been through the process.
"A lot of effort is put into helping people not only just manage the risk and obviously the investment side of things, but also the broader piece, which is how do we help you have an amazing corporate outcome from the sale of your business, and how do we help you as a family appropriately prepare for that?" she said.
Advisors can meet with families one-on-one for financial education. However, many of these millennial and Gen-Z clients prefer digital education on their own time. Goldman Sachs has courses for children of clients as early as 15 years old. This Semester at GS program has six one-hour sessions that span trading talks from executives in global markets as well as personal finance topics like how to think about a credit score. These virtual sessions are cameras off, Boals Moeller notes.
"You don't have to be at a desk," she said. "It's not another hour of homework."
