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= Honest Dollar = Honest Dollar is an American company founded in Austin, Texas. The financial technology company helped set up and maintain employee retirement accounts for small businesses. In March 2016, Goldman Sachs announced a deal to acquire Honest Dollar, now known as Marcus Invest.

History
Honest Dollar was founded in 2014 by William Hurley, aka Whurley, and Henry Yoshida. In 2014, Whurley left his mobile software design and development company Chaotic Moon Studios in order to co-found Honest Dollar with Yoshida. Yoshida, acting as Honest Dollar's president, previously co-founded the Austin-based Maresh Yoshida 401 Group. In March 2015, Honest Dollar completed a $3 million seed financing from a syndicate of investors that included Expansive Ventures, Formation 8 and Core Innovation Capital — all three of which are based in California.

In 2016, Goldman Sachs' Investment Management Division announced that it would acquire digital retirement savings platform Honest Dollar for an undisclosed sum.

Honest Dollar’s Platform
Honest Dollar enables employees of small and medium-sized businesses, self-employed individuals and independent contractors to quickly begin saving and investing for retirement by establishing individual retirement account (IRA)-based savings programs.

Honest Dollar's platform approach was aimed at "level[ing] the playing field" in the financial services industry. An estimated 45 million Americans lack access to employer-sponsored retirement plans, with many experts blaming the gap on high costs in both time and money. Honest Dollar’s solution was to provide an individual retirement account-based program for approximately $8 per employee per month and that employers can sign up in just 90 seconds in order to bridge that gap.

The platform recommends one of six portfolios to each employee, based on his or her answers to questions during the signup process. The portfolios are made up of four Vanguard ETFs, which are known for being low cost. Like with an IRA opened independently, employees can contribute up to $5,500 to an Honest Dollar IRA pre-tax ($6,500 if they are over 50 years old). With an 401(k) the contribution limit is $18,000.

Goldman Sachs Acquisition
Approximately 16 months after its creation, Honest Dollar was acquired by The Investment Management Division of Goldman Sachs as part of an effort to serve the approximately 45 million Americans who do not have access to employer-sponsored retirement plans.

Goldman Sachs’ Investment Management Division, comprised of Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) and Private Wealth Management (PWM), provides asset management and wealth management solutions to world-class institutions and individual investors globally. GSAM is one of the world’s leading asset managers, with over 700 investment professionals managing over $1 trillion in assets across many strategies.