Even billionaires are worried about their children’s futures, says Patrick Dwyer, managing director at Miami-based boutique wealth management and planning company Aligned by NewEdge Wealth.
Dwyer’s ultra-wealthy clients — primarily people who range in net worth from $100 million to over $1 billion — are specifically concerned that their kids, primarily between 22 and 35 years old, won’t be able to sustain careers in traditionally stable and lucrative industries like technology, law and medicine, he says.
The U.S. job market is currently tough for young people in general, regardless of personal or family income. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates has steadily grown for three years, reaching 9.7% in September 2025, according to Federal Reserve Data. Last year was the weakest hiring year in the U.S. since 2009, excluding the pandemic-affected year of 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The job market stress has reached the ultra-wealthy, says Dwyer, even as many of them likely have enough money to cover their kids’ living expenses for many years. ”[They’re] realizing that if they don’t pass on more meaningful wealth to their children, or their children are not able to accumulate wealth ... their kids could have [less] agency over their lives than they did,” he says.
