Joe Duran, who sold his company, United Capital, to Goldman Sachs in 2019, is leaving the Wall Street firm after 3 1/2 years of integrating his advisory business into the organization.
“I’ve had a great time integrating the business into wealth, and it was just time for me to do something new,” Duran said in an interview with WealthManagement.com.
Most recently, Duran was serving alongside Larry Restieri as a co-head of the Personal Financial Management Group, which has been renamed the Workplace and Personal Wealth business. Dave Dase, who joined Goldman’s Consumer and Wealth Management division last year as head of franchise relationships, will take over Duran’s role, according to a company memo.
David Fox, who was named head of PFM Advisors last year, will become head of Personal Financial Management, the new name given to United Capital after the acquisition.
“Since joining the Workplace and Personal Wealth business last year as head of PFM Advisors, David has put a renewed focus on the advisor experience,” the memo stated. “He will continue to bring that focus and his passion for client service to driving the business forward for our advisors and our clients. His nearly 25 years of experience in Private Wealth Management, including leading large PWM regions, will help him continue to grow the connectivity across our growing wealth franchise.”
The Workplace and Personal Wealth business has about $100 billion in assets under management.
Duran is currently still a partner at the firm, although Goldman will be winding that down over time. He will also continue to work with the company as an outside consultant on a new coordinated effort to bring Goldman’s capabilities across divisions to the RIA community. That effort is being spearheaded by Padi Raphael, global head of third-party distribution. She has brought together a dedicated team of business leaders across Goldman Sachs, including executives from asset management; Goldman Sachs Advisor Solutions, the firm’s RIA custody unit; GS Select, its lending offering; and the private investor product group, its structured notes group.
“While I think we’re pretty good at individual business lines serving our clients, our real power and our real magic as a firm is bringing that together and operating as a firm,” Raphael said. “To that aim, for the last year, I’ve been spearheading an effort bringing together a dedicated team of senior leaders across the firm who have been working together to really think about how we can present Goldman Sachs as a holistic firm to the RIA community.
“We recognize that our clients are trying to build deeper relationships with their clients, and as an organization, we can really bring together all of our capabilities, from products and services and advice, to really help our clients meet their own complex and historic holistic needs,” she said.
Padi Rafael
“One of the biggest challenges for independent RIAs right now is that it used to be enough to do just planning and open architecture investment solution, and I’m of a very firm opinion that in order to be competitive in the changing landscape, we’re going to have to help advisors to do more for less,” Duran said. “That means providing a one-stop financial support structure for banking, for savings accounts, for credit lines. The advisors are just going to have to do more to have a really differentiated investment solution because the clients themselves can do so much for free or very low cost. The advisors are going to have to be focused on simplifying the clients’ lives and providing ever-increasing sophistication to the investment world, which are two things that Goldman Sachs is very, very good at.”
Duran said there was some coordination across divisions to serve the RIA channel, but not in the way the firm should be doing it.
“One of the things we have to do is bring a One GS, so that all across the divisions we have a coordinated effort to make sure we’re in sync, that the experience they have with us and the way we bring the firm to their clients is coordinated with our best thinking across the divisions,” he said.
One Goldman Sachs is an internal client services initiative.
Duran said his work with Goldman will be his “primary and almost exclusive focus,” but he will also likely advise with or invest in some wealthtech firms. "I’ve been doing that as a mentor," he said.
He also plans to write and contribute content to improve the wealth management industry.