SF - BlackRock Partners GeoWealth Enhances Model Offerings | Benzinga
BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK) entered into a strategic partnership with GeoWealth, a financial technology firm, to expand its capabilities to cater to the needs of clients in the $37 trillion U.S. wealth market. This move aligns with the company's growth strategy to boost its offerings.
As of Dec 31, 2023, the GeoWealth platform had more than $28 billion of assets across nearly 180,000 accounts and roughly 200 registered investment advisors. Last year, it expanded its third-party model marketplace to include more than 700 models through over 70 asset managers. In 2021, GeoWealth started offering BlackRock products, including BLK's standard models, and introduced Aperio and fixed-income separately managed accounts (SMAs) as separate strategies earlier this year.
BLK aims to offer custom models via GeoWealth's platform, enabling advisors to address client demand for private markets, direct indexing and fixed-income SMAs alongside traditional ETFs and mutual funds, all within a single account.
Eve Cout, head of Portfolio Design & Solutions of BlackRock's U.S. Wealth Advisory business, said, "By combining BlackRock's portfolio design expertise with GeoWealth's implementation platform, we will make it easier for advisors to build a models-based practice and enable broader access to private markets – one of today's most sought-after asset classes."
This strategic alliance will boost BlackRock's custom model business, which is the fastest-growing ...