Goldman Sachs names 109 new partners, its biggest class since 2010, and a third come from wealth management

Goldman Sachs picked 109 employees on Thursday to become partners on January 1, its largest class since 2010, according to the New York Post. The WSJ ran the same "biggest class since 2010" framing in its own report.

The numbers

The previous class, two years ago, had 95 partners, the Post reported. Up to 30% of this year's class comes from asset and wealth management, a record 13 are engineers, 39% joined as campus hires and 28% started as summer interns. Goldman said it will pass 100 female partners out of just over 500 in total, and that revenue is up roughly 60% since 2018 while partners remain about 1% of a workforce of more than 47,000.

What is new and what is missing

Goldman did not give the racial or gender makeup of the class, which it had published for earlier classes (27% women, 6% Hispanic or Latino and 4% Black in the 2024 class, per the Post). Executives cited the changed legal environment at a background briefing with reporters. The Post links the move to the administration's campaign against diversity programs and to reverse-discrimination litigation risk; Goldman's stated reason was the legal climate.

The Post also reads the larger class as a retention move against private equity poaching. A Goldman executive told the Post the partnership has not "lost its luster". We cannot verify motive. What the figures show is a bigger group of people earning access to the firm's year-end bonus pool and co-investment funds.

What the title is worth

According to the Post, new partners can draw salaries above $1 million, but the real value is in the closely held bonus pools, which it says routinely double or triple base pay in a good market, and in access to the firm's internal investment vehicles, where partners co-invest alongside Goldman in private equity funds. The Post also notes that President John Waldron, who was reported to be in talks to join Apollo in 2024 before staying on a retention award, is seen as the heir apparent to CEO David Solomon. Those details come from the Post alone and we have not independently confirmed them.

The incoming partners average 17 years at the firm, the Post reported, which shows the class is built from long-serving staff rather than recent hires. For a bank defending against rivals that can offer ownership stakes, widening the circle is a cheap way to give more people a reason to stay.

Why a trader cares

The weighting toward wealth management matches Goldman's push for steadier fee income, which is what the Post highlights. For shareholders, more partners means more people sharing the pool that comp costs come from. We have not seen any figure on that cost, so we make no estimate.

Sources: New York Post; WSJ; Yahoo Finance. This is market information, not investment advice.