Goldman Sachs is carrying out an employee beta test for Marcus Invest, a new automated investment service for retail consumers that will be offered through the bank’s consumer brand Marcus by Goldman Sachs, CNBC reported.

Why should we care?
Marcus Invest, which will launch next year, enhances Goldman’s outreach to retail consumers after rolling out a personal finance tool called Marcus Insights this past year. The bank also intends to add checking accounts to its current product suite, which includes savings accounts and loans. The beta test of Marcus Invest will allow employees to try out the digital investing service for an annual fee of 0.15%, according to an internal email from the bank obtained by CNBC. The product functions like a robo-adviser where users can choose from three model portfolios. Marcus Invest customers can set aside as little as $1,000 to establish an account. Goldman’s pitch to consumers will likely be the ability to tap the bank’s internal expertise designed for the bank’s wealthiest clients in a digital investment platform for the masses. “Marcus Invest helps take the heavy lifting out of investing with managed portfolios of ETFs based on models designed by our colleagues in the Investment Strategy Group, and featuring [Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s] ActiveBeta and Access ETFs in select portfolios,” the email said.