T. Rowe Price follows sale of $1 billion stake to Goldman Sachs, with key hire, to help 'co-create' and sell co-managed portfolios
Bill Cashel's job will be to sell alts to RIAs and brokers including from Goldman Sachs Asset Management and in-house private credit unit Oak Hill
5 min read- T. Rowe Price hired Bill Cashel to lead alternative and private market investments.
- Cashel will co-create and sell model portfolios with Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
- The firm aims to cross-sell Goldman Sachs products to RIAs and brokers.
- This move follows T. Rowe Price's sale of a $1 billion stake to Goldman Sachs.
Brooke's Note: Goldman Sachs has so many ways to get RIAs to buy Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) products and it keeps resulting in RIABiz articles. We wrote about GeoWealth accepting a Goldman investment resulting in GSAM. Goldman Sachs's small investment, its first in GeoWealth, is a big tell about its RIA custody strategy -- igniting GSAM distribution to both differentiate service and lock in profit margins We have written about Goldman Sach's deal with Creative Planning and its United Capital. And, yes, its Goldman custodian. It's a plan. A good one. T. Rowe Price is trying to stop long-term bleeding in its shares. The vampire squid is on the move. They made a deal, and Bill Cashel got hired to help wire the connection. See: Goldman Sachs chief goes off -- in a good way -- about RIAs, promising more 'footprint' and ‘partnerships’
Money can buy you love but whether assets will follow is another matter.
T. Rowe Price announced today (Mar. 31) that Bill Cashel, 52, has joined the firm to “deliver the alternative and private market investments of T. Rowe Price and Oak Hill Advisors (OHA) … including products through T. Rowe Price's strategic alliance with Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM).”
The move comes seven months after T. Rowe Price got the New York City investment bank to take a $1 billion stake in the company . See: T. Rowe Price shares retreat following one-day euphoria over Goldman Sachs' $1 billion stake, after T. Rowe CEO nixes possible sale, draining analysts' enthusiasm
The Boston-based Cashel is coming aboard as head of alternatives to launch T. Rowe's and GSAM's “jointly co-created model portfolios and additional private market offerings expected later this year.”
A T. Rowe spokesman explains that the GSAM collaboration is in its infancy – and how his firm makes revenue in the arrangement.
“T. Rowe Price does not exclusively sell GSAM products,” he says by email. " So far, the only product launched is model portfolios (December 2025). The models were co-created, and they include T. Rowe Price investments.
He adds: “The additional products in development will also be co-created and, as with any T. Rowe Price Product, we earn a management fee associated with the underlying sleeve(s). ”
T. Rowe Price becomes major hedge fund player in a heartbeat with $4.2-billion Oak Hill purchase -- plus a $500-million co-investment -- with RIAs named as prime prospective clients
Cashel be tasked with helping the sales team cross-sell Goldman Sachs products to third-party intermediaries, including RIAs and brokers.
Kevin Collins, T. Rowe's head of U.S. Intermediaries frames it as a just-in-time hire.
“In lock-step with the continued scaling of our alternatives platform, Bill's leadership and deep industry experience will be instrumental in expanding our ability to help advisors deliver meaningful value to their clients.,” he stated in a release.
Key market
T. Rowe barely has a toe in the alts waters. At the end of September, the firm had $1.767 trillion in managed assets, composed of equity (50%), balanced (35%), fixed income and money market (12%), and alternative (3%) offerings, Morningstar writes.
Story Timeline
T. Rowe's acquisition of OHA for $4.2 billion in 2021 broadened its alternatives platform to include private credit. See: T. Rowe Price completes lightning $4.2-billion deal to become 'alternative credit' leader by delivering heavy cash at closing and promising light touch
It cited RIAs as a potential key market when it made that deal. See: T. Rowe Price becomes major hedge fund player in a heartbeat with $4.2-billion Oak Hill purchase -- plus a $500-million co-investment -- with RIAs named as prime prospective clients
T. Rowe Price completes lightning $4.2-billion deal to become 'alternative credit' leader by delivering heavy cash at closing and promising light touch
T. Rowe Price's shares (TROW) bumped up $1.11 or 1.25% to $90.14 on the news. Shares have fallen more than 47% in the past five years as commoditization of asset management and RIAs moving assets into index investments squeezed the mutual fund industry.
Retirement advantage
T. Rowe has moved toward alternative investments, where fat profit margins still reign. T. Rowe manages $1.80 trillion in client assets as of Feb. 28.
About 66% of T. Rowe assets are retirement-related, the release states. Yesterday, the DOL proposed the use of alternative assets in 401(k) accounts – so long as they are part of professionally managed portfolios.
This retirement angle is why Goldman Sachs is part of this partnership, said Wade Spencer, leader of wealth management practice at West Monroe in Chicago, in a September RIABiz interview.
"With alternatives seemingly on the horizon for defined contribution participants, does GS see this as a way to get their alternatives into retirement accounts?
"Seems like having those relationships from T. Rowe rather than start from scratch in distributing to retirement plans would be of significant value,” he explained.
Alts cred
Cashel comes to T. Rowe with some ‘alts’ street cred.
He led distribution in the wealth channel for AQR Capital Management, specialized in liquid alternatives and tax-managed solutions. He left in 2021 after 12 years.
Cashel later co-founded (2023) Privacore Capital, an open architecture alts platform co-owned by Janus Henderson.
As for that $1 billion invested by Goldman Sachs into T. Rowe. In September, shares were trading around $105, and are now closer to $90, so Goldman may be down $100 million on that trade.
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