Goldman to Buy Folio Financial

Shortly after the Motif-Folio news broke in April, Goldman said it was "in discussions with Motif to assume the role of index provider" for a set of ETFs the two firms had developed. Next, Charles Schwab moved to buy Motif's technology and intellectual property and also to hire many Motif employees, including founder and CEO Hardeep Walia.

'The Last Piece'

"When combined with last year's acquisition of United Capital and its Marcus, Ayco and Private Wealth Management units, the acquisition of custodian Folio Investing fills in the last piece of the wealth management ecosystem puzzle for Goldman Sachs," said Gavin Spitzner, head of Wealth Consulting Partners.

"Once integrated, they will have a full end-to-end stack for both their own advisors in the rebranded Personal Financial Management group, as well as for unaffiliated RIAs that use its FinLife CX platform" acquired from United Capital, Spitzner explained.

The consultant detailed his "back of the napkin" analysis of these Goldman deals in this graphic:

For Folio, "this transaction is another landmark event … , as it will further enhance our innovations and bring scale to our business, particularly in the execution, clearing and custody space," Wallman added.

The deal "fulfills Folio's long-term goal of partnering with a preeminent financial services firm to increase the reach and impact of the investment technology and services that many hundreds of people over the last two decades have dedicated their lives to creating," he said.