Goldman Sachs wins over $70 billion retirement plan mandates from Verizon, Lockheed Martin

Goldman Sachs Asset Management won appointments as outsourced chief investment officer for Verizon Communications and Lockheed Martin retirement plan assets, a mandate covering more than $70 billion and strengthening one of the firm’s most durable institutional businesses. The awards span about $30 billion in defined benefit assets and $40 billion in defined contribution assets under advisement, giving Goldman a larger role in how two of the country’s biggest employers manage retirement capital.

The win matters inside Goldman because OCIO work can be harder to dislodge than a trading or advisory mandate. Once a large sponsor hands over investment oversight, the relationship tends to stretch across portfolio construction, liability hedging, manager selection, reporting and governance, all of which can generate recurring fees and pull in more Goldman staff over time. That makes the assignment relevant not just to asset managers, but also to the engineers, portfolio managers, product specialists and client coverage teams building the retirement and OCIO platform.

Marc Nachmann, Goldman Sachs’ global head of asset and wealth management, framed the mandates as evidence that the firm can deliver customized investment solutions supported by technology, experience and specialized infrastructure. Goldman said it had $480 billion in OCIO assets under supervision globally as of March 31, 2026, while its broader Asset & Wealth Management division oversaw roughly $3.7 trillion in investments. For a firm that still derives much of its public identity from banking and markets, that scale helps reinforce Goldman’s pitch that it can compete as a multi-asset platform for very large retirement plans.

The Verizon piece is especially notable because Verizon was planning to shut down Verizon Investment Management Corp., its in-house investment subsidiary, and move pension asset management to Goldman. Employees were informed in March, and the transition was set to take effect in July 2026. Both Verizon and Lockheed Martin have also been active in pension risk transfers, underscoring how large sponsors are reducing balance-sheet exposure and handing more responsibility to outside managers.

The mandate lands in a crowded market. BlackRock, Russell Investments and Mercer are among the other firms competing for the same outsourced retirement business, where sponsors want large platforms that can handle public and private markets, implementation and oversight in one place. For Goldman, winning both Verizon and Lockheed Martin gives the OCIO franchise a fresh proof point in a segment that can deepen client ties and justify more investment in people, technology and product development.