When Destiny Family Office CEO Tom Ruggie decided to move nearly $500 million in client assets to Goldman Sachs Advisor Solutions (GSAS), he was willing to bank on the allure of the Wall Street giant’s brand recognition over more established firms in the registered investment adviser (RIA) custody market.
“For the high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth, there’s a perception difference. Having a relationship with Goldman strikes a chord,” Ruggie told Crain Currency. “The majority positive — sometimes even negative — but it does strike a chord with the individuals that we deal with in the family office.”
Ruggie’s multi-family office manages roughly $485 million on behalf of 19 families, whose assets began transitioning to GSAS in the early spring. Before Destiny partnered with Goldman, its family office assets were held under custody platforms at Charles Schwab and Fidelity Investments.
Goldman’s lending and investment banking services also appealed to Ruggie in transitioning to GSAS, which launched a new alternative-lending feature in May. Ruggie said that in recent years, he sometimes lost clients to investment banks that were offering low interest rates in exchange for cash from his HNW clients.
“We’ve struggled in the past with competing against investment banks when it comes to lending; it’s happened a few times,” Ruggie said. “Having the ability to be competitive on some of the lending, I felt that was going to be a big win for us with Goldman.”
Destiny has targeted the technology and defense industries with its investments in companies such as SpaceX, Reddit, xAI, Stripe and Anduril. The trend of family office clients allocating more assets to alternative investments was another reason for Ruggie’s firm to join GSAS.
“Prior to Goldman, we were already doing a lot of alternative and direct investments," he said. "But having this relationship with Goldman is going to open up additional doors or avenues for those types of investments."
Destiny Family Office operates alongside RIA Destiny Wealth Partners, which manages roughly $700 million from 900 client families. Ruggie, whose firm in total manages $1.2 billion, plans to keep its RIA assets with Schwab and Fidelity.
Goldman Sachs began its big push into the RIA custody business in 2020 through its acquisition of the online brokerage firm and custodian Folio Financial. Since then, GSAS has added partnerships with top RIAs such as Creative Planning, Prime Capital Investment Advisors, NewEdge Wealth and Ashton Thomas Private Wealth.
From a technology standpoint, Ruggie admits that Goldman Sachs Advisor Solutions is not yet as capable as Schwab's or Fidelity’s client-facing portals, but he is confident in Goldman’s plan for future upgrades.
“They just don’t have quite all the bells and whistles at this point as Fidelity and Schwab do,” he said. “But [Goldman] does have a timeline in place of knowing where they need to be and has objectives and goals in place to get there. I do believe they’re going to get there pretty quickly.”