Salaries Go Sky High at Goldman Sachs

Contributing Editor

15 March 2006

Goldman Sachs announced record first quarter 2006 results yesterday, which meant that each of the 23,600 employees at the Wall Street firm made $400,000 on an annualised basis. Estimated annual pay and benefits were almost $900,000 on average, according to calculations by the Financial Times. Considerable speculation has arisen in recent months about what Goldman Sachs is planning with its wealth management business. Some analysts have talked about the bank setting up a private banking offering. But with so many very rich employees, Goldman’s does not need to attract many additional clients to have a very viable private banking business. On the asset management side – which the bank’s wealth management business falls under – Goldman’s reported that it gained $25 billion in net asset inflows in the first quarter. The figure includes $3 billion of net asset inflows in connection with the acquisition last year of the annuity and life insurance business of The Hanover Insurance Group. Total assets under management rose 18 per cent year-on-year to a record $571 billion. No breakdown of the results of the bank’s private wealth management division was given.