Goldman Sachs, the 150-year-old investment bank best known for serving big corporationsand wealthy investors, has expandedinto investing for the mass market.
It introduced Marcus Invest, a low-cost digital investing platform, whichoffers individual investors three different investment strategies populated bya varying mix of ETFs — core, impactand smart beta — adjusted for their riskprofile along with regular rebalancing.
“It truly is a seminal moment when
they actually turned on the power and
unleashed their robo-advisor into the
wild,” said Tim Welsh, founder, presi-
dent and CEO of Nexus Strategy LLC.
“Given Goldman’s brand and reach, the
game has been fundamentally altered.
No more sleep for retail wealth manage-
ment executives this week!”
The minimum investment for Marcus
Invest is $1,000 and the annual advisory
fee is 0.35%, far less than most financial
advisors charge for more personalized
services. ETF fees for Marcus Invest
are embedded in the performance of the
funds chosen, and additional fees may
be levied for specific requests such as
printed statements and check copies.
Marcus Invest is available for individual, joint and IRA accounts and isintegrated into the Goldman by Marcusconsumer banking app, which offers relatively high-yielding savings accounts,unsecured personal loans and budgetingsoftware, as well as an Apple credit card.
With its latest launch, Goldman Sachs
will compete directly with digital plat-
forms of retail-focused giants including
Vanguard, Schwab, Fidelity and Merrill
Edge and with the independent robo-
advisors Betterment and Wealthfront.
Marcus Invest’s 0.35% fee is the sameas the fees charged by Morgan Stanleyand Wells Fargo but slightly higher thanthe 0.25% fee for the digital-only services of Wealthfront and Betterment and0.20% all-in cost charged by VanguardDigital Advisor, according to DavidGoldstone, manager of research andAnalytics at Backend Benchmarking,which publishes The Robo Report.Fidelity Go and JPMorgan Chase YouInvest charge 0.35% for everything,including expense ratios for ETFs.
When Goldman Sachs announced
its plans for Marcus in December, a
spokesman told Investment Advisor
that the new service would help the
firm “attract new customers and deepen
relationships within its consumer and
Ayco ecosystems,” the latter referring to
its employer-based financial counseling
investment management service.
Marcus Invest could be conceivablythe first stop for investors who ultimately move on to Goldman Sachs PersonalFinancial Management — the renamedUnited Capital that Goldman acquired inMay 2019 headed by Joe Duran, UnitedCapital’s former CEO — or to GoldmanSachs Private Wealth Management.
ETF ADVISOR
By Bernice Napach
Goldman Unleashes Digital Investment
Platform for the Masses
Also, DFA’s ETF market debut is big success, while Putnam prepares to
enter ETF market.
Tom/stock.adobe.com
DFA’s ETF Market Debut Is a
Big Success
Better late than never could describe Dimensional Fund Advisors’ recententrée into the ETF market.
The fund company’s first three ETFs
have accumulated $700 million in assets
since they launched in November and
December, with almost half the growth
occurring since Jan. 1, 2021, according to
Bloomberg News.
The three ETFs — Dimensional