Goldman Sachs made its first major hires — and poaches from Schwab and Pershing RIA custody units — as it prepares to leverage its Folio Financial acquisition for an invasion of their turf.

Expect a hard launch early next year.

“[These hires] represent a major coup for Goldman and give them a rock solid foundation for the launch of … [an] RIA custody business,” says Louis Diamond, principal of New York consultancy, Diamond Consulting, via email.

“Neither of these gentlemen would take a job in which they would be stuck on the bench for too long,” he explains. “Both were instrumental in landing larger scale teams from the major wirehouses and independent broker-dealers onto their respective custody platforms.”