BlackRock Extends iRetire Technology to Manage Decumulation Phase of Retirement
Provides Advisors with Technology to Create Plans for Spending Retirement Savings, Generating Sustainable
Lifetime Income
BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) has developed innovative technology for financial advisors to help solve one their clients’ most vexing
challenges – understanding not just how to accumulate retirement savings to help meet their spending goals, but how to spend their
assets in retirement. iRetire® can now deliver a comprehensive accumulation and decumulation framework for
estimated sustainable retirement income that financial advisors can tailor to each client’s unique circumstances and
preferences.
What makes retirement planning so difficult for advisors is the need to simultaneously manage the ups and downs of the market
without knowing how long their client is going to live. iRetire gives advisors a new way to help navigate these uncertainties by
providing them with the tools to engage in a relatable, repeatable conversation that is sophisticated enough to help manage the
problem and simple enough to use with clients.
“Helping investors generate and maintain sustainable retirement income has been referred to as the ‘silver bullet’ of retirement
planning, and a truly effective solution has eluded advisors and investors for decades,” said Frank Porcelli, Chairman of
BlackRock’s U.S. Wealth Advisory business. “iRetire empowers advisors to help clients manage their journey with the help of a
powerful, integrated approach that not only helps clients accumulate retirement savings, but also deploy those assets throughout
retirement.”
Taking Clients To and Through Retirement
iRetire is an end-to-end retirement planning framework that financial advisors can use to take clients to and through
retirement. It provides advisors and their clients with a powerful and sophisticated institutional asset management process that is
backed by Aladdin®, the same industry leading, global multi-asset technology platform that powers risk and portfolio
management at many of the world’s leading institutions, including BlackRock, and the methodology that powers the firm’s innovative
series of retirement income indexes, CoRI®.
Since launching in 2015, iRetire today is available to more than 70,000 advisors nationwide, delivering a suite of capabilities
that, in the years leading up to a client’s retirement, allow advisors to engage in a relatable savings and investing discussion
focused on saving toward a retirement income goal. With the addition of iRetire’s decumulation capability, an advisor can help
manage their client’s spending phase in retirement as well. Once the client reaches retirement age, an advisor can help them
understand how much estimated sustainable income they could spend from their portfolio each year during retirement to help meet
their goals.
“iRetire was built from the ground up to provide advisors with advanced technology and established institutional investment
techniques to better navigate their clients retirement journey,” said Chip Castille, BlackRock’s Chief Retirement Strategist. “By
seeking to manage market and longevity risk together, and focusing on specific retirement outcomes, iRetire provides a means for
investors to gain clarity and confidence about the path ahead. We hope this new approach can help investors embrace increased
longevity instead of worrying about how to pay for it.”
Some clients may have immediate needs or retirement spending expectations that an advisor may want to address, so iRetire allows
advisors to quickly and easily adjust portfolios or add inputs, in real-time, to illustrate the potential impact to estimated
sustainable spending that may result from making a change. This flexibility allows advisors to be responsive to specific client
preferences, while reinforcing straightforward and transparent discussions about the spending a client might achieve in
retirement.
“The need for financial advice is greater than ever as savers face global and geopolitical uncertainty, prolonged low interest
rates, and longer lifespans. At the same time, the wealth management industry is undergoing rapid transformation as a result of
changing demographics, new regulations and technological advances,” Porcelli said. “iRetire is designed to powerfully respond to
all of these forces, leveraging BlackRock’s industry-leading technology and insights to enable advisors to demonstrate their value
to clients by facilitating a deeper dialogue.”
About iRetire
BlackRock launched iRetire® as part of its commitment to help reframe the retirement challenge, providing new
approaches using the firm’s proprietary technology solutions and support. iRetire’s innovative approach to retirement planning is
available to more than 70,000 financial advisors across the U.S.
iRetire empowers advisors with sophisticated institutional data, risk engines and portfolio construction tools, all displayed on
an interface designed for advisors to use with their clients. The platform helps advisors guide their clients to and through
retirement. It shows clients how much income their current savings could generate annually in retirement and how changes in
behavior (e.g., working longer, saving more, spending less, changing their investment strategy) could help them stay on track
toward achieving their income goals. With that analysis in hand, an advisor can use iRetire to offer for client consideration a
series of model portfolios designed for effective allocation of retirement assets, either to help close a prospective income gap or
to stay on track toward a retirement income goal. Once an investor successfully reaches retirement, advisors can use iRetire to
help navigate their client’s spending goals through retirement. This end-to-end comprehensive approach to creating a sustainable
retirement income plan can help advisors build client confidence, deepen relationships and systematically grow and retain
business.
About BlackRock
BlackRock is a global leader in investment management, risk management and advisory services for institutional and retail
clients. At March 31, 2017, BlackRock’s AUM was $5.4 trillion. BlackRock helps clients around the world meet their goals and
overcome challenges with a range of products that include separate accounts, mutual funds, iShares ®
(exchange-traded funds), and other pooled investment vehicles. BlackRock also offers risk management, advisory and enterprise
investment system services to a broad base of institutional investors through BlackRock Solutions ® .
As of March 31, 2017, the firm had approximately 13,000 employees in more than 30 countries and a major presence in global markets,
including North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East and Africa. For additional information, please visit
the Company’s website at www.blackrock.com | Twitter: @blackrock_news | Blog: www.blackrockblog.com | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/blackrock
IMPORTANT: The projections or other information generated by the iRetire tool (the “tool”) regarding the likelihood of
various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results and are not guarantees of future
results. Results may vary with each use and over time.
Any information contained in or generated by the tool should not be construed as or relied upon as investment advice,
research or a recommendation by BlackRock Investments, LLC or any of its affiliates (collectively, “BlackRock”) regarding the use
or suitability of any particular fund or overall investment strategy. The tool is designed to be used in consultation with an
advisor, and should not be relied on as a primary basis for an investment decision. Only an investor and his or her advisor know
enough about the investor's circumstances to make an informed investment decision.
The tool and BlackRock’s CoRI methodology do not guarantee future income or protect against loss of principal. There can be
no assurance that an investment strategy based on the tool or BlackRock’s CoRI methodology will be successful.
Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal.
©2017 BlackRock, Inc. All rights reserved. BLACKROCK, iRETIRE, ALADDIN, and CoRI are registered
trademarks of BlackRock, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and elsewhere. All other marks are the property of their
respective owners.
BlackRock
Farrell Denby, 212-810-8034
Farrell.Denby@BlackRock.com
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