BlackRock CEO Larry Fink on Tuesday called on the government and private sector to ensure Americans have enough money to retire, as the world’s largest asset manager announced next month. He said he would launch a product to address this issue.
LifePath Paycheck was launched in April and aims to be made available to 500,000 employees by 14 retirement plan sponsors as a defined contribution plan.
“The United States needs a coordinated, high-level effort to ensure that future generations can live out their final years with dignity,” Fink said in his annual letter to investors.
BlackRock oversees the largest retirement funds in the United States, with more than $10 trillion in assets under management at the end of last year.
Fink said data from the Census Bureau’s 2022 Consumer Finance Survey shows that nearly half of Americans between the ages of 55 and 65 say they don’t have a dollar saved in an individual retirement account.
“Simply put, the transition from defined benefit to defined contribution is, for most people, a transition from financial certainty to financial uncertainty,” he added.
Fink also mentioned climate change as a key economic trend with a focus on “energy security” and said net zero remains a top investment priority for most of BlackRock’s clients. .
Investor interest in climate change awareness and sustainable business practices has surged in recent years, and asset managers need to consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies as impact investing gains momentum. I’m under pressure.
“I started writing about transition in 2020, and since then the issue has become even more controversial in the United States,” he said.
BlackRock’s ESG policies remain a divisive topic, especially in Republican states.
Earlier this month, Texas’ school endowment terminated its contract with BlackRock, which controls about $8.5 billion in state funds, citing BlackRock’s boycott of fossil fuel energy producers. BlackRock had urged the fund’s administrators to reconsider.
