Silicon Valley’s Elite Financial Advisers Say This Era of Wealth Is Different

硅谷精英理财顾问：这个时代的财富创造与众不同

If anyone in tech has already started their Hot IPO Summer, it’s Silicon Valley’s elite wealth advisers. Two private wealth managers who work with high-net-worth techies told me they’ve seen an uptick in activity from their client base, some of whom are expecting a big liquidity event this year. We’re talking, of course, about the employees and early investors at SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic who are coming into mind-boggling riches. (These wealth managers agreed to speak on the record but wouldn’t name specific companies, so any such references are my words, not theirs.)

如果说科技圈里有人已经开启了“火热 IPO 之夏”，那一定是硅谷的精英理财顾问们。两位服务于高净值科技人士的私人财富经理告诉我，他们观察到客户群体的活跃度有所上升，其中一些人正期待着今年出现大规模的流动性事件。我们指的当然是 SpaceX、OpenAI 和 Anthropic 的员工及早期投资者，他们正迎来令人咋舌的巨额财富。（这些财富经理同意公开接受采访，但不愿透露具体公司名称，因此文中提到的公司名称均为我个人所加，而非他们所言。）

Visions of super-yachts, air-cooled Porsches, and vacation homes with closets full of Loro Piana probably come to mind. But elite advisers say most of their clients are pretty strategic about their newfound wealth before purchasing big-ticket items, snapping up real estate, or plunging their money into meme stocks. (Some go big anyway.)

人们脑海中浮现的画面可能是超级游艇、风冷保时捷，以及衣橱里塞满 Loro Piana 的度假屋。但精英顾问们表示，大多数客户在购买大额商品、抢购房产或将资金投入模因股（meme stocks）之前，对这笔新获得的财富都相当有策略。（当然，也有一些人依然会大手大脚。）

Ashley Velategui, the head of wealth strategies at Bernstein Private Wealth Management, who has been offering guidance to high-net-worth individuals in Seattle and the Bay Area for nearly 20 years, says she’s encouraging tech clients to figure out how much “core wealth” they need to feel financially independent before making any hasty moves. They should also consider that a balance sheet largely made up of one stock—like, say, SpaceX—can shift dramatically in value over time.

伯恩斯坦私人财富管理公司（Bernstein Private Wealth Management）财富策略主管 Ashley Velategui 在西雅图和湾区为高净值人士提供咨询已有近 20 年。她表示，她鼓励科技行业的客户在做出任何草率决定之前，先弄清楚自己需要多少“核心财富”才能实现财务独立。他们还应考虑到，资产负债表如果主要由单一股票（比如 SpaceX）构成，其价值可能会随时间发生剧烈波动。

Brittany Boals Moeller, who heads up Goldman Sachs’ West Coast wealth management division and who moved to the Bay Area last year to cater to the tech crowd, says that overall the “pace and the scale of wealth creation seems faster than before.” As she sees it, “a lot of what we’re doing is pre-IPO planning now.”

高盛西海岸财富管理部门负责人 Brittany Boals Moeller 去年搬到湾区以服务科技群体。她认为，总体而言，“财富创造的速度和规模似乎比以前更快了。”在她看来，“我们现在所做的工作很大一部分是 IPO 前的规划。”

A few insights I gleaned from my conversations with them: The definition of wealth has changed. Velategui says that there’s more ambiguity now around how people in tech define high or ultra-high net worth. The mega rich used to be anyone with a pot of $25 million to $30 million, but these days her average client tends to be worth somewhere between $20 million and $100 million.

我从与他们的交谈中总结出几点见解： 财富的定义已经改变。Velategui 表示，科技行业人士对高净值或超高净值的定义现在变得更加模糊。过去，拥有 2500 万至 3000 万美元资产的人就算得上超级富豪，但如今她平均每位客户的身价往往在 2000 万至 1 亿美元之间。

Velategui adds that clients are considering forming a “family office”—a small private company that manages a family’s wealth and assets—much earlier than they have historically. Her ultra-high-net-worth clients are now setting aside $25 million for family office formation alone, which means their total wealth extends far beyond that.

Velategui 补充说，客户考虑成立“家族办公室”（即管理家族财富和资产的小型私人公司）的时间比以往要早得多。她的超高净值客户现在仅为成立家族办公室就预留了 2500 万美元，这意味着他们的总财富远不止于此。

“Lock-up periods” can be tricky to navigate. “Hot IPO Fall” doesn’t sound as vibe-y as “Summer,” but the reality is that most employees and early investors won’t be able to sell their stock until the lockup period following an IPO has ended. This is to protect the market from a destabilizing oversupply of stock; typically, the lockup period lasts 180 days.

“锁定期”可能很难处理。“火热 IPO 之秋”听起来不如“夏季”有氛围，但现实情况是，大多数员工和早期投资者在 IPO 后的锁定期结束前无法出售股票。这是为了保护市场免受股票供应过剩带来的动荡；通常，锁定期持续 180 天。

Even in the case of “staged” lockups, employees are urged to proceed with caution, Velategui says. These phased tranches introduce more complexity because there are more points at which the stockholder can sell, and the liquidation process requires more management.

Velategui 表示，即使在“分阶段”锁定期的情况下，也建议员工谨慎行事。这些分批解禁增加了复杂性，因为股东可以出售股票的时间点更多，且变现过程需要更多的管理。

Tax minimization is still the goal. Selling shares can come with a hefty tax liability, and wealth managers are coming up with all kinds of sophisticated ways to let their tech clients spend their money without selling their shares.

税务最小化仍然是目标。出售股票可能会带来沉重的税务负担，财富经理们正在想出各种复杂的办法，让科技客户在不卖出股票的情况下也能花钱。

Velategui ticks off a few of her clients’ strategies, including variable prepaid forwards, short box spreads, or borrowing money against their brokerage firm. “The one that seems to be coming up within this community most frequently is variable prepaid forwards,” she says. With this strategy, the seller enters a contract with a financial institution to receive an upfront, tax-deferred payment for their shares, and agrees to hand over those shares to the bank at a future date. These strategies are not without risk—and they’re still subject to tax scrutiny—but what is Silicon Valley if not insanely risk-tolerant?

Velategui 列举了她客户的一些策略，包括可变预付远期合约（variable prepaid forwards）、空头盒式价差（short box spreads）或以经纪公司资产为抵押进行借贷。“在这个群体中出现频率最高的是可变预付远期合约，”她说。通过这种策略，卖方与金融机构签订合同，提前获得股票的税收递延付款，并同意在未来某个日期将这些股票交给银行。这些策略并非没有风险，而且仍会受到税务审查，但硅谷如果不具备疯狂的风险承受能力，那还是硅谷吗？

Wealth managers need to prove they’re better than Claude. “People are coming in with more information and targeted questions than we may have seen over the past five to 10 years, and a lot of that is because of their access to AI,” says Velategui.

财富经理需要证明他们比 Claude 更出色。Velategui 说：“人们带着比过去五到十年更多的信息和更有针对性的问题而来，这很大程度上是因为他们能够使用人工智能。”

Boals Moeller adds that, while her clients are doing more “introductory work” by turning to AI chatbots and podcasts, wealth advisers can offer advice that is “nuanced and not quite public knowledge.” Goldman Sachs has also expanded into the concierge business, hooking up high-net-worth clients with private aviation options, health care specialists, both physical and digital security services, hot tickets to events, and even education consulting for their kids. Claude can’t do all that. Yet, anyway.

Boals Moeller 补充说，虽然她的客户通过求助于 AI 聊天机器人和播客做了更多的“入门工作”，但财富顾问可以提供“细致入微且非公开”的建议。高盛还扩展了礼宾业务，为高净值客户提供私人航空选择、医疗专家、物理和数字安全服务、热门活动门票，甚至为其子女提供教育咨询。Claude 暂时还做不到这些。至少目前还不行。

Clients should invest in what makes them happy. Silicon Valley is unique because of its flywheel effect: When founders and early employees get a windfall, they often reinvest in other tech startups or launch something new themselves. Given that the majority of venture-backed startups fail, this isn’t necessarily the most rational use of their riches.

客户应该投资于让他们快乐的事物。硅谷的独特之处在于其飞轮效应：当创始人和早期员工获得意外之财时，他们往往会重新投资于其他科技初创公司，或者自己开启新的事业。考虑到大多数风险投资支持的初创公司都会失败，这未必是他们财富最理性的用途。

Boals Moeller works with many clients who funnel a significant amount of their wealth into new startups, and part of advising them is considering “what the money really means to them.” “Sometimes they want to maximize it to give it away. Sometimes they want to give their children a family home. Sometimes they want to enjoy their new life, and sometimes they want to start a new thing,” she says. “We take the view that our clients should do exactly what they want to do with their next business, and we build their portfolio around that.”

Boals Moeller 与许多将大量财富投入新初创公司的客户合作，她建议的一部分工作是考虑“这笔钱对他们来说到底意味着什么”。她说：“有时他们想实现财富最大化以便捐赠出去。有时他们想给孩子一个家。有时他们想享受新生活，有时他们想开启新事业。我们的观点是，客户应该按照自己的意愿去处理他们的下一项事业，我们则围绕这一点来构建他们的投资组合。”

Philanthropy is all the rage. Boals Moeller claims that this new class of clients is particularly interested in “dramatically giving back” through philanthropy. Velategui has noticed that the ultra-rich are now giving their kids small funds to dole out—maybe to something like an animal rights group—to teach them to be decent stewards of wealth. Recently, a top AI executive told me he believes this new era of philanthropy will be much…

慈善事业正风靡一时。Boals Moeller 声称，这一新阶层的客户对通过慈善事业“大幅回馈社会”特别感兴趣。Velategui 注意到，超级富豪们现在开始给孩子们一小笔资金让他们去分配——比如捐给动物权利组织——以教导他们成为合格的财富管理者。最近，一位顶级 AI 高管告诉我，他相信这个慈善新时代将会有很大……