For Goldman, RIA Service Starts With 'Unlocking Time'

“We are very confident that the incredible growth we have seen in the RIA industry is not going to be a flash in the pan, but we also know they need more support in the operation of their businesses and in serving more discerning clients,” Siegler said. “Financial planning is in incredible demand across the wealth spectrum, and we feel that we are uniquely positioned as an organization to support advisors.”

RIA Pain Points

RIAs see a tremendous opportunity, Siegler and Raphael said, but they also express some familiar pain points.

“One of the most common challenges we hear about is just the degree of operational intensity advisors face as they are trying to serve clients day in and day out,” Raphael said. “The typical advisor’s desktop is just littered with so many different icons and tools they are using for different parts of the client service process. Here at Goldman, the more we can do to bring cohesion into the advisors’ process, the better.”

The key concept behind “OneGS for RIAs” is to deliver more capabilities in a more seamless way, Siegler and Raphael said.

“To boil it down, we need to be unlocking time for advisors even as they deliver more advanced capabilities,” Raphael said. “There are so many demands on their time that aren’t adding value and aren’t deepening connections to clients. We want to help advisors do what they’re the best at, which is being that holistic financial planner and connecting with clients.”

Among the solutions that advisors are seeking, according to Siegler and Raphael, is efficiently transitioning assets from acquired firms (or from individual client wins) into a more centralized investment management approach — and doing so in a scalable and tax-efficient manner.

“That’s an illusive capability in the industry today and something we’re going a long way to address,” Raphael said. “Sophisticated advisors want their clients to be moving into separately managed accounts or custom model portfolios where they can provide direct indexing and related tax-smart techniques.”

Consolidation Is Here to Stay

Siegler and Raphael said that Goldman Sachs is well positioned to support an RIA industry that is rapidly consolidating.

“As some of the leading RIAs make acquisition after acquisition, they increasingly start to look like the types of institutional clients that we are true experts at serving,” Raphael said. “We’re still very committed to serving smaller firms, of course, but we feel like this trend fits well with our RIA strategy.”

Siegler, meanwhile, noted that the firm has been building out an enterprise-style client service team that is tailored to serving highly scaled and increasingly centralized RIAs.

“We have stood up a relationship management team under the OneGS banner to better serve the largest RIAs in the country,” Siegler said. “Covering these firms and understanding how they work is very important to our vision, but that’s only part of it. We have hundreds of folks out in the marketplace today talking to all different manner of RIAs. That’s going to continue.”

Connecting Across Generations

Siegler and Raphael said they are optimistic about RIAs' future — and thus the future of Goldman Sachs as an empowering partner of advisors.

“The only big question out there, I would say, is whether advisors can continue to remain relevant as wealth shifts from the first generation — often a patriarch — to spouses and down to children and grandchildren,” Raphael said. “We’ve all seen the stats about how common it is for advisors to lose business during a wealth transfer event because they weren’t talking with the spouse or kids.”

Advisors seem to be increasingly aware of this issue, they agreed, and are doing more to connect with clients across generations in a more holistic way.

Credit: Bloomberg