SpaceX executives and employees ring the opening bell at the Nasdaq Marketsite to celebrate the start of SpaceX’s initial public offering in New York, June 12, 2026.
Adam Jeffrey | CNBC
Thousands of SpaceX employees who suddenly became billionaires are combining their fortunes to redefine the wealth management business.
As CNBC reported earlier this week, more than 100 SpaceX employees with assets between $1 billion and $5 billion are joining forces to negotiate better terms with asset managers. Anticipating huge profits from Friday’s IPO, the group has entered into an agreement with registered investment adviser Correo to provide asset management services at lower fees than industry standards.
The deal, with fees starting at 0.5% and decreasing as the group’s assets grow, is a significant shift for the wealth management industry, which has traditionally charged fees based on clients’ personal assets.
Choreo CEO Jason Van de Loo said SpaceX’s IPO is a unique opportunity to build lasting relationships with a large group of customers whose wealth is about to skyrocket.
“This is a unique and transformative event,” Van de Loo said. “Events like this are rare. Most investors take decades to build their wealth. When you have a moment like this, it’s almost like getting a large inheritance or winning the lottery. It’s not easy to wrap your head around the trading elements of that event.”
Choreo Group is likely to grow in size over time, and employees of other companies preparing for IPOs will also be offered this option. But the battle to control tens of billions of dollars in new liquid assets held by SpaceX employees is just beginning.
Private banks, news agencies, trust companies and other registered investment advisers all send teams to California, Texas and Florida to host events in hopes of winning business.
Jamie Butmer, chief investment officer at RIA firm Creative Planning, said the firm has dozens of SpaceX clients. The biggest question they face is whether to sell their stock, he said.
SpaceX stock, typically granted in the form of restricted stock, accounts for up to 90% of the wealth of many SpaceX companies, Buttmar said. With such a concentration in volatile stocks, advisors typically advise clients to diversify.
But SpaceX owners tend to believe deeply in the company’s future and are unlikely to want to sell their shares. Butmer said his firm helps these clients with tax-efficient indexing and other option derivative strategies. They also seek assistance with estate planning and philanthropy, such as establishing a charitable remainder trust or donor-advised fund.
Most SpaceX customers are trained engineers or technicians, so they are immersed in the details of how asset management products work. However, although they are highly educated, many of them are often unfamiliar with the complex world of wealth.
“This is a group of engineers, so it’s individuals who do a better job of dotting all the ‘i’s’ and crossing all the ‘t’s,” Buttmer said. “However, the vulnerability posed by dramatic changes in net worth is extremely dangerous and must be addressed. It can often lead to highly skilled professionals making poor decisions.”
SpaceX also has a unique way of dealing with financial challenges. Like many aerospace and high-tech companies, SpaceX’s culture is built around whiteboards and troubleshooting.
Bill Dramis, a senior banker at JPMorgan Private Bank who works with high-net-worth executives and employees of aerospace and defense companies in Southern California, said engineers typically bring group problem-solving practices to wealth management.
“Many of these people we meet are incredibly intelligent and like to whiteboard examples with their colleagues,” he said. “That’s how they’ve grown and built their knowledge base. So now they’re like, ‘I’m going to work on this issue about wealth creation, tax implications, philanthropic planning and giving.'” And they want to do it with their peers. They put it on a table and did a stress test. ”
SpaceXers also rely on artificial intelligence for wealth advice. Advisers say SpaceX employees often come to meetings with recommendations from Anthropic’s Claude or OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
“What’s interesting for us so far is that we’re finding creative ways to leverage AI as part of the conversation,” Van de Loo said. “I think for this group of employees, the first instinct is to go and ask Claude: ‘What should we do?’
“They bring that output into a conversation with our team, and we can say, ‘Okay, here that output is valid, but here it might be a product-specific solution rather than a planning solution,'” he said.
But most importantly, SpaceXers want wealth advisors who can truly educate.
“We are here to advise people who are facing this situation for the first time,” Dramis said. “A lot of the questions we get are, ‘Can you help us evaluate scenarios and trade-offs?’ We have a very long history of helping clients manage and stay in control of their asset concentration.”
