BII: Who we are

Macro research

We generate in-depth, proprietary economic and markets research for BlackRock’s portfolio managers and clients. We share these through internal notes, our Investment perspectives publication, the Macro take blog series and our proprietary data on the BlackRock macro dashboard.

Portfolio research

The nature of portfolio diversification is changing. At BlackRock, we focus on creating real resilience for the whole portfolio with the aim to create better long-term financial futures for our clients.

This is about ensuring the portfolio is well positioned at a more granular level to underlying themes, including sustainability. The most important action investors need to take today, in our view, is to review their strategic asset allocation to ensure portfolios are resilient to the supercharged trends accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Our Portfolio Research group is responsible for developing the core principles and intellectual property that underpin BlackRock's approach to portfolio design, such as capital market assumptions and optimization tools.

Our capital market assumptions are part of our wider portfolio construction toolkit. Using our capital market assumptions, which explicitly account for uncertainty and different pathways for asset class returns, we can employ robust optimization techniques to design hypothetical downside-aware strategic portfolios.

Sustainability research

Our approach to sustainability is rooted in our fiduciary duty to our clients. We do not dictate how clients should invest their money. The money we manage is not our own; it belongs to our clients.

We seek the best risk-adjusted financial returns for clients in investments and stewardship. We cannot ignore sustainability in this pursuit. It drives material investment risks and opportunities, just like central bank policy and digitalization. We research sustainability dispassionately. We focus on how it is likely to play out in portfolios, not on how anyone thinks it should play out. We implement the implications in our investment processes, alongside other drivers of risk and return.

Actionable investment insights

Our global strategist team develops actionable, tactical views for our clients and client-facing professionals. Our Global weekly commentary and Global investment outlook bring our tactical views to life. The team has representatives in key markets in the Americas, Asia and Europe who also bring local intelligence to BII and BlackRock’s portfolio managers.

We curate intellectual and thought-provoking content to help drive better investment decisions. Internal summaries of debates and other events we organize for our portfolio managers are the starting point. We provide a slice of these insights from BlackRock thought leaders to clients in our external publications, digital experiences and across social media platforms.

Investment outlook forum

Over 100 BlackRock portfolio managers, strategists and executives gather twice every year to debate the outlook for the economy, markets and geopolitics. We summarize the key takeaways in our Global Investment Outlook publication and digital experience. An accompanying chart deck is refreshed several times a year.

Daily global meeting

BlackRock portfolio managers and strategists around the world gather daily to discuss market news, share investment views and debate a topical weekly question posed by a rotating chair.