Swimming Team

Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO)

UK DB pension schemes face huge challenges building investment portfolios capable of returning them to full funding levels to meet their liabilities. OCIO provides a fully outsourced investment solution to meet this challenge.

Capital at risk. The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and are not guaranteed. Investors may not get back the amount originally invested.

Why BlackRock for OCIO?

BlackRock is a trusted partner of choice for over 850 UK pension schemes.1 Our experience in managing pensions at every stage of their life cycle, up to and including buyout, can give trustees confidence that we have the experience and skill set to manage their schemes. Further, our asset allocation and risk management capabilities set us apart as an OCIO.

1 BlackRock, as at 31 December 2023

Risk Management
Robust risk management
We employ our industry-leading Aladdin® technology to analyse risk factors and provide transparency into your portfolio.
Solutions
We build solutions with fees in mind
We know that every pound saved is a pound that can be used to pay pensions.
Whole portfolio
Whole portfolio approach
We seek to understand and solve for clients’ needs in the context of the whole portfolio.
End partnership
End-to-end partnership
We serve as an extension of your staff to ensure a seamless partnership from onboarding to implementation.

Our Offering

Our OCIO team share their insights on how BlackRock work with pensions schemes, to help them achieve their funding objectives. They discuss the benefits of an OCIO structure, and the relevance of OCIO as more schemes move to buy-out.

We see many benefits of OCIO for pension schemes, trustees, sponsors, and members. Firstly, efficiency-- the investment and regulatory landscape is constantly changing. And this creates more work for trustees. We believe an OCIO provider releases this pressure. Because when trustees choose to have everything under one roof, investment decisions become more efficient.

Decisions can be made in real time. For example, we were able to act swiftly as OCIO during market volatility in 2022. Our action protected client-funding levels and our trustees weren't pressurized into quick decisions. We acted for them.

Secondly, cost savings-- OCIO clients can benefit from investment managers' economies of scale through the use of in-house funds and also as this scale allows attractive fee negotiations with third parties. At BlackRock, we use passive and factor-based strategies to achieve cost efficiencies only using active strategies where we believe paying for them truly makes sense. And as the world's largest asset manager, we have scale for external manager fee savings. For members, every pound saved is another pound secured for the future.

And thirdly, reducing volatility-- an OCIO focuses on protecting funding level volatility for a scheme in all market environments. To achieve this, an OCIO arrangement is managed through a bespoke governance structure with a level of delegation and discretion to the OCIO set out clearly in legal documentation. Trustees remain responsible for the high level decisions, maintaining efficient and clear control of their scheme whilst delegating day-to-day implementation to the OCIO. This focus means there is reduced likelihood of trustees calling on their sponsors for unexpected events as volatility has been effectively managed.

Risk Warnings

Capital at risk. The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and are not guaranteed.

Investors may not get back the amount originally invested.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of current or future results and should not be the sole factor of consideration

when selecting a product or strategy.

Changes in the rates of exchange between currencies may cause the value of investments to diminish or increase.

Fluctuation may be particularly marked in the case of a higher volatility fund and the value of an investment may fall

suddenly and substantially. Levels and basis of taxation may change from time to time.

Important Information

This material is for distribution to Professional Clients (as defined by the Financial Conduct Authority or MiFID Rules) only and should not be relied upon by any other persons.

Issued by BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered office: 12 Throgmorton Avenue, London, EC2N 2DL. Tel: + 44 (0)20 7743 3000. Registered in England and Wales No. 02020394. For your protection telephone calls are usually recorded. Please refer to the Financial Conduct Authority website for a list of authorised activities conducted by BlackRock.

Any research in this document has been procured and may have been acted on by BlackRock for its own purpose. The results of such research are being made available only incidentally. The views expressed do not constitute investment or any other advice and are subject to change. They do not necessarily reflect the views of any company in the BlackRock Group or any part thereof and no assurances are made as to their accuracy. 

This document is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer or invitation to anyone to invest in any BlackRock funds and has not been prepared in connection with any such offer. 

© 2023 BlackRock, Inc. All Rights reserved. BLACKROCK, BLACKROCK SOLUTIONS, and iSHARES are trademarks of BlackRock, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and elsewhere. All other trademarks are those of their respective owners.

MKTGM0523E/S-2885421

We see many benefits of OCIO for pension schemes, trustees, sponsors, and members. Firstly, efficiency-- the investment and regulatory landscape is constantly changing. And this creates more work for trustees. We believe an OCIO provider releases this pressure. Because when trustees choose to have everything under one roof, investment decisions become more efficient.

Decisions can be made in real time. For example, we were able to act swiftly as OCIO during market volatility in 2022. Our action protected client-funding levels and our trustees weren't pressurized into quick decisions. We acted for them.

Secondly, cost savings-- OCIO clients can benefit from investment managers' economies of scale through the use of in-house funds and also as this scale allows attractive fee negotiations with third parties. At BlackRock, we use passive and factor-based strategies to achieve cost efficiencies only using active strategies where we believe paying for them truly makes sense. And as the world's largest asset manager, we have scale for external manager fee savings. For members, every pound saved is another pound secured for the future.

And thirdly, reducing volatility-- an OCIO focuses on protecting funding level volatility for a scheme in all market environments. To achieve this, an OCIO arrangement is managed through a bespoke governance structure with a level of delegation and discretion to the OCIO set out clearly in legal documentation. Trustees remain responsible for the high level decisions, maintaining efficient and clear control of their scheme whilst delegating day-to-day implementation to the OCIO. This focus means there is reduced likelihood of trustees calling on their sponsors for unexpected events as volatility has been effectively managed.

Risk Warnings

Capital at risk. The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and are not guaranteed.

Investors may not get back the amount originally invested.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of current or future results and should not be the sole factor of consideration

when selecting a product or strategy.

Changes in the rates of exchange between currencies may cause the value of investments to diminish or increase.

Fluctuation may be particularly marked in the case of a higher volatility fund and the value of an investment may fall

suddenly and substantially. Levels and basis of taxation may change from time to time.

Important Information

This material is for distribution to Professional Clients (as defined by the Financial Conduct Authority or MiFID Rules) only and should not be relied upon by any other persons.

Issued by BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered office: 12 Throgmorton Avenue, London, EC2N 2DL. Tel: + 44 (0)20 7743 3000. Registered in England and Wales No. 02020394. For your protection telephone calls are usually recorded. Please refer to the Financial Conduct Authority website for a list of authorised activities conducted by BlackRock.

Any research in this document has been procured and may have been acted on by BlackRock for its own purpose. The results of such research are being made available only incidentally. The views expressed do not constitute investment or any other advice and are subject to change. They do not necessarily reflect the views of any company in the BlackRock Group or any part thereof and no assurances are made as to their accuracy. 

This document is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer or invitation to anyone to invest in any BlackRock funds and has not been prepared in connection with any such offer. 

© 2023 BlackRock, Inc. All Rights reserved. BLACKROCK, BLACKROCK SOLUTIONS, and iSHARES are trademarks of BlackRock, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and elsewhere. All other trademarks are those of their respective owners.

MKTGM0523E/S-2885421

Meet our OCIO team

Our dedicated OCIO team in London, partner with UK pension schemes clients to create bespoke approaches that reflect their objectives, and invest their assets securely and transparently to ensure those goals are achieved.

Sion Cole, Managing Director
+44 (20) 77431919
Sion has overall responsibility of OCIO services at BlackRock. He helps UK pension scheme trustees and their corporate sponsors meet their funding goals.
Email Sion
Lara Edmonstone-West
Director
+44 (20) 77435031
Email Lara
Sophie Dapin
Director
+44 (20) 77433233
Email Sophie
Thiru Muralikrishnan
Vice President
+44 (20) 77432456
Email Thiru
Tim Fawcett
Vice President
+44 (20) 77435889
Email Tim
Alex Faulkner
Associate
+44 (20) 77435272
Email Alex
Emmanuel Cahn
Associate
Email Emmanuel
Ellie Roberts
Associate
Email Ellie
Stefan Miloradovic
Analyst
Email Stefan

Contact our team

Get in touch with the BlackRock team to learn more about our fiduciary management solutions for UK pension schemes.
Contact us

Family Offices, foundations and endowments

Our specialist OCIO client team works closely with our dedicated family offices, foundations and endowments team, to build bespoke multi asset and single asset class investment solution.
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