Goldman Sachs continues its retreat from the mass-market banking arena. The company sold its Personal Financial Management Business.

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. today announced the sale of its Personal Financial Management (PFM) unit to Creative Planning (Creative). Creative is an industry leading Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) and one of the largest in the country, with more than 2,100 employees across its affiliates and $245 billion in combined assets under management and advisement.

Creative’s wealth management teams will continue to have access to investment solutions and services from Goldman Sachs Asset Management as it builds a leading investment management platform. In July 2023 Creative entered into a strategic custody relationship with Goldman Sachs Advisor Solutions (GSAS).

With approximately $2.7 trillion in total assets under supervision (AUS), Goldman Sachs provides a broad array of investment solutions across all major asset classes. Goldman Sachs Asset Management partners with wealth managers, like Creative, through customized solutions and public and private alternative products for high-net-worth investors (HNW) through its third-party wealth business. GSAS offers independent advisors access to institutional-grade solutions and custody, banking and lending services to support the needs of their clients.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2023 and result in a gain.

“This transaction is progress toward executing the goals and targets we outlined at our investor day in February. It is margin accretive to Asset & Wealth Management and allows us to focus on the execution of our premier ultra-high net worth wealth management and workplace growth strategy and to serve HNW investors through RIA and other wealth management clients, such as Creative Planning. We will continue to support PFM and other Creative advisors with access to our investment solutions through our expanded strategic agreement,” said Marc Nachmann, Goldman Sachs Global Head of Asset & Wealth Management. 

“Building on our existing custody relationship with Goldman Sachs Advisor Solutions, an expanded partnership with Goldman Sachs is a natural, strategic fit,” said Peter Mallouk, President & Chief Executive Officer of Creative Planning. “We welcome the talented advisors from PFM as we remain committed to being the leading advisor in the independent space. Together, we will offer HNW investors comprehensive planning and a broad set of solutions related to wealth and investment management.”

At investor day earlier this year, Goldman Sachs laid out plans to continue growing its proprietary wealth channels including Private Wealth Management (PWM), workplace (Ayco), the related private banking and lending business and Marcus Savings.

„Goldman acquired a team of about 220 financial advisors managing $25 billion in assets in May 2019, when it announced the $750 million acquisition of United Capital Financial Partners. At the time, CEO David Solomon heralded the deal as a way to broaden Goldman’s reach beyond the ultra-rich clientele that is its main strength to those who are merely wealthy, with perhaps a few million dollars to invest. It’s now clear that this bet didn’t pay off.” said Linas Beliunas, Country Manager, Europe, and General Manager, Flutterwave Lithuania.

„It’s been argued for a while that GS will sell parts of its consumer business to major credit card companies or consumer lenders. Alternatively, the bank could bring in a majority-controlled partner to run the unit. (…) this is exactly where Apple could come in and change the game forever.” he added.

Also, in September 2021, Goldman announced acquisition of GreenSky, Inc. – a BNPL home improvement lending business – for $2.1 billion.

“This transaction furthers our aspirations to meet customers where they transact, providing them with simple and transparent home improvement financing solutions. As we build the consumer banking platform of the future, GreenSky will be a key component of our offering.” said at that time David M. Solomon, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs.

Now Goldman is considering divorcing of Greensky over poor financial performance. In January it reported that the Platform Solutions unit made a pre-tax loss of $1.2 billion in the first nine months of 2022. 

Back in February, Goldman halted its pursuit of new credit card programs and abandoned plans for a branded consumer credit card. If that wouldn’t be enough, the bank reported a $3 billion loss over nearly three years from the unit that includes GreenSky and other transaction banking, credit card, and fintech businesses. 

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Creative Planning, LLC is an independent wealth management firm that provides a financial planning led investment management approach, retirement planning, estate planning, trust services, tax planning and family office services for individuals as well as 401(k) and institutional clients. Creative Planning has more than $245 billion in combined assets under management and advisement across all 50 states and 65 countries as of July 1, 2023.