Goldman’s Marcus Adds Personal Finance Management Tools

Goldman Sachs Offers Marcus Finance Mgmt Tool

Goldman Sachs just launched a new personal finance tool for customers of average means, CNBC reported on Monday (Sept. 14).

The 150-year-old Wall Street powerhouse, known widely as an investment bank serving big institutions and wealthy individuals, developed its new Marcus Insights platform by leveraging some of the knowledge gained from its $100 million purchase of a personal finance tool called Clarity Money from the brother of PC-making billionaire Michael Dell.

Marcus Insights is designed to give customers a high-level view of their accounts at multiple institutions.

“See your checking, savings, loans, retirement and investment accounts alongside your Marcus accounts, all in one place,” states a post published on the company’s website last week.

“We want to make understanding your financial health approachable and easy,” Adam Dell said in a telephone interview with CNBC, according to Monday’s report. “What did you spend this month and where did you spend it and how much do you have left? And is there any extra that you could set aside for an emergency fund, or just put in a high-yield savings account?”

The Marcus Insights app will initially be available only to existing Goldman Sachs customers, but will soon be offered more widely, CNBC reported.

Adam Dell, who joined Goldman Sachs after selling Clarity Money to the bank, reportedly added: “A lot of our thinking for Marcus Insights was informed by the experience we had at Clarity Money and what we know customers care about.”

CNBC wrote in its report: “The bank hopes that by helping users get a handle on their finances with a simple, clean interface, they will be more inclined to trust Goldman – and try some of the firm’s existing and upcoming products.”

As for why Goldman Sachs would enter the crowded field of online financial assistants, Adam Dell said: “The end state of the bank of the future is a digital assistant that is constantly thinking about your best financial interests. Almost like having your own CFO, whose job it is to optimize your money and uncover ways for you to improve your financial situation, and is relentless in that pursuit.”

“We’re on a long marathon to build that vision, and each of these steps we take along the way get us closer, and we’re very excited about the things that are to come,” he continued.

From a technical perspective, Goldman Sachs wrote in last week’s blog post: “We partner with Plaid, a third party, to link your accounts and institutions to Marcus Insights. We may also connect directly with your institution.”