Goldman Sachs has secured another mega-RIA to join its new Ayco client referral program, with Creative Planning CEO Peter Mallouk telling InvestmentNews that his firm is on board.
“We are on it and excited about the program,” Mallouk wrote to InvestmentNews. “It’s clear Goldman is investing heavily in the success of the program and we are going to do our part to help them build it out.”
Creative Planning, which totals roughly $640 billion in client assets, follows fellow RIA giants Mercer and Wealth Enhancement in joining Goldman Sachs Ayco. Both Mercer and Creative Planning have existing custody relationships with Goldman Sachs Advisor Solutions (GSAS). Wealth Enhancement does not publicly disclose having a custodial relationship with GSAS.
Goldman Sachs previously sold United Capital, an RIA it first acquired in 2019, to Creative Planning in 2023. United Capital managed around $29 billion at the time of the sale. Goldman Sachs has also helped refinance debt for Creative Planning, per a loan deal reported by Citywire in 2024.
Goldman Sachs has declined to comment on its new referral program. RIA custodian giants Schwab and Fidelity lead the two largest existing referral networks for RIAs, with Schwab recently increasing the minimum assets a client needs to be referred to an RIA to $2 million after previously being $500,000.
“It is not clear yet whether Goldman Sachs will require firms in the referral program to have a custodial relationship with them,’ said RIA industry lawyer Corey Kupfer. “It will be interesting to see if Wealth Enhancement adds GS as a custodian. GS has other incentives, however, beyond potential custodial revenue to build and deepen relationships with larger RIA firms like Mercer and WEG, as those firms can have access for their clients to certain investment and lending solutions that GS provides.”
Few details on fees or client referral asset thresholds are known about Ayco, which caters to corporate executives and was merged in 2024 with Goldman’s Private Wealth Management (PWM) unit. Goldman’s website says that clients generally need a minimum of $10 million in investable assets to open a PWM account.
Gabriel Shahin, founder of the California-based RIA Falcon Wealth Planning, speculates that Goldman Sachs Ayco will look to refer clients in the range of $500,000 to $5 million in assets to RIAs in its referral program. Shahin says this approach would support Goldman’s goal of focusing its internal services towards ultra-high-net-worth clients while referring mass affluent clients to outside advisors. Goldman’s sale in 2023 of the RIA United Capital to Creative Planning was another indication of Goldman’s shift away from the mass affluent space.
“I don't know if it's going to be a massive play, because at the end of the day they [Goldman] directly compete with advisors. I know Fidelity and Schwab do but say they don't. But Goldman Sachs really doesn't want to take anything less than $5 million,” said Shahin, whose Falcon Wealth manages $2 billion in client assets and has a small custody relationship with Goldman.
“Time will tell how this program competes with the massive referral programs of Schwab and Fidelity but I would imagine, opening up Fortune 500 companies to Goldman RIA clients will be a very compelling proposition for firms lucky enough to be invited in,” added Diamond Consultants CEO Louis Diamond. “Custody is highly competitive so having a clear referral mechanism can only bolster Goldman's offering in the market.”
Both Mercer and Wealth Enhancement indicated in regulatory filings that they have agreed not to charge clients referred from Ayco fees greater than those charged to clients with similar portfolios who did not come through the referral program. However, Kupfer, managing partner at Kupfer Law, warns of potential “quid pro pro” services tied to referrals from Goldman Sachs.
“GS Ayco and their referral program participating RIAs are all going to need to be careful not to breach their fiduciary duties to clients,” said Kupfer. “Whether that is related to the RIA participating firms charging more to cover the GS referral fee or using GS investment, lending and other solutions and products as a quid pro quo for more referrals in the program as opposed to because those products and solutions are in their clients best interests, or on the GS side referring clients to firms for revenue sharing reasons as opposed to their best interests.”
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