Goldman Mulls Sale of Former United Capital Business
It bought the RIA, led by Joe Duran until early 2023, for $750 million, about four years ago.
Goldman Sachs is considering the sale of the former RIA United Capital, which it acquired four years ago for $750 million.
The news comes less than six months after the bank said it was considering its options for its credit-card partnerships and specialty lending operations — including the sale of GreenSky, which it bought for $1.7 billion in 2021.
The RIA unit, founded by former CEO Joe Duran and rebranded by Goldman in 2020 as Personal Financial Management, is “a very small component of our overall wealth franchise,” the bank said in a statement Monday.
Goldman is “currently evaluating alternatives for that business as we determine where to invest our resources and where we see the greatest opportunity,” according to the statement. “We expect to find an outcome that benefits both our clients and our advisors.”
Its shares traded down nearly 1.65% to $319.61 as of 12:10 p.m. in New York on Monday.
When Goldman bought United Capital, the core RIA business had about $23.4 billion in assets; its white-label wealth management platform had $25 billion.
According to the bank, as of Dec. 31, 2022, Personal Financial Management had $29 billion in assets under supervision.
The bank appears to be pivoting its focus back to ultra-high-net wort- wealth management. This business, it says, has some 16,000-plus clients and $1 trillion in assets.
“We see outstanding opportunities to continue investing in these core businesses where we have a long-term track record of success,” Goldman Sachs explained, referring to its private wealth, private banking and lending, Marcus Savings and workplace programs (Ayco).
The news was first reported by Citywire and RIABiz.
(Credit: Bloomberg)