The numbers come first: a 2025 Deloitte global survey found just 6% of Gen Z respondents cite reaching a corporate leadership role as a primary goal. That single data point is rattling wealth managers from Miami to Minneapolis — and their clients have nine- and ten-figure balance sheets.
The fear is not about money. It is about meaning.
Patrick Dwyer, managing director at Aligned by NewEdge Wealth and adviser to clients with net worths between roughly $100 million and more than $1 billion, told CNBC that millionaires and billionaires 'are recognizing this is not the same game they had to play.' His clients are concerned their children — typically between age 22 and 35 — are struggling to secure and hold jobs historically associated with security and status, including technology, law, and health care.
'Families have to rethink … what it means to support their children,' Dwyer said. 'And we're not talking about spoiling your kids. We're talking about: What if your kid needs retraining at 33?'
Tom Thiegs, managing director of leadership and legacy at Ascent Private Capital Management with U.S. Bank, put it plainly: 'This is a very real concern I'm hearing from ultra-affluent families right now. On the surface it can sound irrational: Why would a billionaire worry about their child getting a job? But realistically, no matter how much money you have, parents still want their children to succeed and lead fulfilled lives.'
Thiegs is careful to separate the two anxieties his clients carry. 'They're not usually worried about the financial security of their children; rather they worry that the job market will impact their child's sense of purpose, identity, and confidence,' he said. 'They also worry that significant wealth will dampen their drive or desire to work.'
A structural shift, not a cyclical dip.
Entry-level hiring has slowed, competition has grown fiercer, and AI is absorbing tasks that were historically performed by recent graduates. The displacement is visible in the choices Gen Z is already making: college-educated young workers are competing for six-figure nanny and tutor roles in elite households, pivoting to blue-collar trades in manufacturing and electrical work, or chasing creator careers — all in search of what they describe as financial 'freedom' outside a traditional office track.
Trent Von Ahsen, a certified financial planner and managing partner at Cedar Point Capital Partners, says his ultra-high-net-worth families are less worried about financial stability than about dependency. 'This cohort of parents seem more concerned about over-supporting their children, than under-supporting them,' he told Fortune.
Thiegs echoes that instinct in his planning advice. 'When parents are worried about their children's job security, we recommend creating a system that provides opportunities for growth and development rather than just a financial safety net,' he said. It is more important to support a child's self-worth than just their net worth, he added.
The CEO Times read: The anxiety billionaires feel about their children is, at its core, a market signal. When even the wealthiest families must restructure estate plans and wealth-transfer strategies because AI and regulatory overreach have hollowed out white-collar entry points, the cost of that disruption is not confined to any income bracket. Free enterprise depends on a workforce that earns, competes, and builds — not one that is permanently subsidized, whether by a family office or a government program. The solution wealth managers are prescribing — structured growth, long-term investment, earned agency — is the same one the market has always rewarded. Capital follows capability, and no inheritance replaces it.
