How Many Shoes, Handbags Can $3 Billion Buy? Stephanie Erklentz Coleman May Be Tring To Find Out
It’s been some time since we had occasion to think about Born Rich, the 2003 documentary chronicling the lives of those who grew up extraordinarily wealthy aspiring to a life in a Louise Linton movie. It was a simpler time, long before one of the film’s notable castmembers—a brunette Ivanka Trump—was able to take the overwhelming sense of entitlement and entirely undeserved sense of superiority displayed by her and all of the other heirs and heiresses profiled and use it to help her father destroy the country.
Stephanie Ercklentz didn’t come off quite as badly as Trump or Luke Weil, although the latter was at least self-aware enough to know that quotes like “my family can buy your family, piss off” were perhaps best kept among friends, and sued (unsuccessfully) to keep it that way. Which is not to say that she seemed especially relatable or down-to-earth.
'I've never actually dated outside my social background. I guess it's your compatibility, somebody on your same wavelength, understanding where you came from,' she lamented.
'I'm sure I would but he'd have to understand that I love going shopping somewhere and spending all this money on something and (someone of a lesser class) might get mad at me for being stupid and spending all this money on a Gucci purse but of course I'm like "I have to have it!"'
None of which was meant to indicate that she was particularly interested in earning the money needed for said Gucci purse.
In the film Erklentz bemoaned her own brief career in finance, describing how she was 'worked to the ground' at investment bank Merrill Lynch before throwing in the towel…. 'I enjoyed it, and I learned a lot about finance. But I didn't have the drive anymore. I would see people who would sit there and sit there and I was like: "My friends are at downtown Cipriani right now drinking bellinis and I'm here crunching numbers that are never going to get looked at."'
Luckily for her, one person with her social background (better, really) did still have the drive. And, oh happy day, Erklentz married him. And we think it’s safe to say, what with the $3 billion Chase Coleman earned last year and his firm’s impressive debut among the 20 best hedge funds of all time, she can do all the shopping and all the drinking of Bellinis she wants. Not that she’ll be telling any filmmakers about it.
'I had approached this documentary as something lighthearted and satirical,' she said. 'As I look back, it wasn't funny, and I certainly regret participating as this doesn't reflect who I am or my values….' In recent years Erklentz and her husband have kept a low profile….
