As one of the world's leading asset management firms serving institutional, intermediary and retail clients worldwide, BlackRock offers one of the widest ranges of investment solutions. This includes fundamental and quantitative active management approaches to efficient indexing strategies under the iShares brand.

In this session, join Deborah Ho (Regional Head of South East Asia and Country Head of Singapore at BlackRock), Vishal Agarwal (Head of Client Business for South East Asia at BlackRock) and Samuel Rhee (Chairman and Chief Investment Officer at Endowus) as they talk about:

1. Introduction to BlackRock
2. BlackRock's investment philosophy
3. BlackRock's expertise in ESG investing
4. How BlackRock aligns its investment solutions to the retirement needs of clients

Timestamps:

0:00 Introductions  

8:15 Foreword by Blackrock  

12:25 About BlackRock  

17:27 BlackRock client base and range of product  

21:38 Is it possible for a single fund manager to be good at everything that they do?  

23:09 How has the company achieved 9 trillion AUM?  

28:36 Introduction to BlackRock’s proprietary risk management platform  

34:20 QnA: With a much larger AUM, have there been major changes in BlackRock's strategy to maintain performance over the next decade?  

37:04 BlackRock’s Sustainable Platform  

48:21 BlackRock’s partnership with Endowus  

57:47 QnA: Does BlackRock have a history of cutting iShares ETF expense ratio?  

58:59 QnA: What are BlackRock’s views on the fixed income asset class? Is China bond fund risky?  

1:05:30 QnA: Since Endowus recommends allocations according to individual risk profiles, will these active funds be part of these recommendations?

Excerpts from the webinar:

BlackRock’s assets under management grew to 9 trillion, how has the company been able to achieve this? (23:09)

Deborah: The most important reason why we are able to achieve this is because of the trust our clients place in us. Of course, no one is going to trust us blindly, we have to show that we can meet and deliver our clients’ expectations. It is our firm belief that the power in the hands of those who are closest to the customers are only going to increase. It is almost an obsession that we stay as close to our clients as possible. At the end of the day, our shares are growing because clients’ trust in BlackRock is growing.

Another important cause for this growth is our foresight in technology. I mentioned earlier that the firm had invested in technology way before it became fashionable and this has really put us in a position where we are able to have a common risk management platform across all asset classes.  

BlackRock’s partnership with Endowus (48:21)

Sam: We are really excited to partner with BlackRock to introduce some of the finest best-in-class funds across asset classes. We are initially boarding seven of the top best-in-class funds in the BGF series, which are the usage funds available here in Singapore across fixed income. These seven funds include BGF Asian Tiger Bond Fund, BGF China Bond Fund, BGF European Equity Income Fund, two real estate funds -- BGF World Real Estate Securities Fund and BSF Global Real Asset Securities Fund -- and lastly two technology funds -- the BGF Next Generation Technology Fund and BGF World Technology Fund. Further, we are boarding BlackRock index funds, which are currently only available to accredited investors but we are working to bring back the products and make it available for Singapore based investors.

All these funds are available through our Fund Smart platform.

QnA: With a much larger AUM, have there been major changes in BlackRock's strategy to maintain performance over the next decade? (34:20)

Vishal: A big chunk of our phenomenal asset growth has been from index investing in ETFs through the iShares brand, and in those areas scale is actually key because what that scale allows you to do is to effectively drive down transaction costs for end clients. Additionally, the purpose of those investments are to track us as closely as possible to the index with low cost. The ability to do that at scale allows us to better enhance returns for clients by ensuring that we can get access to markets very cost effectively.

QnA: Since Endowus recommends allocations according to individual risk profiles, will these active funds be part of these recommendations? (1:05:30)

Sam: We always recommend that you start with the core allocation. You want to have a globally diversified low cost portfolio that is allocated across equities and fixed income depending on your age, risk tolerance and personal circumstances. However, the Fund Smart platform is for individuals with more sophistication or who want to have a satellite position away from their core. Aside from the core allocation, Fund Smart allows individuals to flexibly build a portfolio that is more suitable to personal curation in their portfolio construct.

Additionally, we also have a Cash Smart product for your short-term liquidity and cash management needs. This is why we suggest having a holistic approach to be able to manage all of your different needs and duration of investments. It is also important to take into consideration all of your sources of funds. Endowus is the only platform where you can manage your CPF, SRS and Cash savings seamlessly on one digital platform.