2018 Annual Report

Diverse platform. Comprehensive solutions.

For many years, the asset management industry focused on beating the market, or outperforming an index. Today, many investors realize that the most important investment decisions they make aren’t about which stocks to choose or whether to buy an active or index fund. Investing for the future is about constructing a portfolio that meets an objective.

BlackRock has developed the most comprehensive investment and technology platform so we can build better portfolios that help more people build better futures.
Better choices.
Expanding client options.
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Better technology.
Leading the digitization of 
asset management.
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Better portfolios.
Building better futures.
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Investors are choosing BlackRock for Cash Management 9% base fee growth in cash strategies
Investors are choosing BlackRock for iShares® $168 billion of iShares net inflows
Investors are choosing BlackRock for Aladdin® 26 new clients went live on Aladdin and Aladdin Wealth
Investors are choosing BlackRock for Illiquid Alternatives Raised a record $16 billion in illiquid alternatives
Investors are choosing BlackRock for Target Date Strategies $20 billion of LifePath® net inflows
Investors are choosing BlackRock for Factors 11% organic asset growth in factor strategies
It doesn’t matter whether that objective is income for retirement, buying a home, or fulfilling obligations to thousands of pension beneficiaries. Achieving financial objectives requires building better portfolios.

As the investment landscape continues to evolve, a traditional 60% / 40% portfolio allocation of equity to bond exposures does not have the same expected return as it did in the past.

In today’s world, clients need portfolios that meet their specific objectives. In anticipation of this shift, BlackRock has developed the most diverse investment platform in the industry to provide choice for clients: strategies across investment styles — from replicating an index to generating alpha — across asset classes, factor styles and regions.

We have built better technology that helps portfolio managers and financial advisors see and manage risk, construct portfolios and operate more efficiently. We use this technology at BlackRock and we offer this technology to clients and partners, so they can do the same.

The true differentiation of BlackRock’s investment and technology platform is that it helps us understand the whole picture: what clients have, what clients want and how to get there.

The diversity of BlackRock’s platform drove $1 trillion of net inflows over the last 5 years, representing an average of 4% organic asset and organic base fee growth.

Letter to our shareholders

As I reflected on the last year, something felt different about 2018.

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