Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Sep 29, 2026 · recorded Sep 8, 2026 · 23m · 13m saved
With FX de Mallmann, Chairman of Goldman Sachs EMEA and Chairman of Investment Banking · Tucker York, Chairman of Global Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs
Companies with significant family ownership produce 70% of the world's economic output and 60% of its jobs, Goldman Sachs says. Only three in 10 of them make it to a second generation.
Two Goldman Sachs chairmen who sit on opposite sides of that handoff, one who takes family companies public or sells them and one who then manages what the founder is left with, spent the episode explaining why.
"The statistics you mentioned before that only a third of the businesses pass on to the second generation, about 10% to the third, in our view, is neither good nor bad. It kind of is what it is."
FX de Mallmann, Chairman of Goldman Sachs EMEA and Chairman of Investment Banking, leads the firm's coverage of large family-owned companies and family offices — the capital raises, IPOs, sales and successions. Tucker York, Chairman of Global Wealth Management, sits on the other side of that same table: the families, their balance sheets, and the generation that inherits the capital once it's created.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 23 minutes of audio, 10 minutes of reading.
Here are the 9 takeaways that matter.
Key Takeaways
Family-owned firms produce 70% of global economic output and 60% of its jobs, but only 3 in 10 survive to a second generation and about 1 in 10 to a third
In the US alone, family businesses number over 32 million and account for more than 60% of GDP and the workforce
Family-controlled businesses tend to outperform non-family-controlled ones, on Goldman's own data
Succession comes down to two decisions: whether the family stays in management, and how ownership passes to the next generation
Only about half of family businesses have a succession plan, and most of those are informal
Founders often delay succession planning because they're consumed by running the business
The larger and more complex a family business gets, the more likely it needs a non-family chief executive
A sale can hit a family's sense of identity as hard as its balance sheet
Once a company is sold or taken public, the founder has to learn to think like an endowment manager, not a business operator
Wealth built on one concentrated bet is high-risk; staying invested in a diversified portfolio is the safer path afterward
1. Family Firms Run the World
Allison Nathan opened by asking de Mallmann for more color on the size and reach of family-owned business, beyond the global figures she had already cited.
Family businesses are over 80% of all US companies
"In the US, for instance, there are over 32 million family-owned businesses, which represent over 80% of all businesses. Those account for over 60% of GDP and over 60% of the overall workforce." — FX de Mallmann
He added that around 35% of Fortune 500 companies are family-controlled or have a significant family owner.
Whole industries in Europe and Asia are family-run
"As you move to Europe, there are significant industries that have leaders, companies that are leading the industry, that have either family control or significant family shareholder - in luxury goods, in beauty and cosmetics, in shipping, in consumer goods, in retail, in telco, in business services, in industrial, in defense, in numerous other sectors." — FX de Mallmann
In Asia, he said, large family conglomerates diversified both vertically and horizontally dominate whole economies, particularly in India and Korea.
