Martin Small : Sure. I guess maybe I can start with a little color on the multi-asset flows and then Larry can comment on LifePath Paycheck. So, multi-asset strategy saw inflows in the quarter of about $5 billion after we had a really strong 2023 with $83 billion. Those strong inflows were driven by the continued demand for our LifePath Target Date offerings. And obviously, we see significant growth ahead in that core business but also in the upcoming launch of LifePath Paycheck. Our LifePath Target Date franchise has about $470 billion in assets, generated $9 billion of flows in the first quarter, thanks to the funding of several large mandates. We have about an organic growth rate of 8%. So we’re leading the market there in terms of growth and we continue to outperform relative to the industry.
Again, we’re building on a strong core business there. We had $25 billion of flows in ’23, which was about 7% growth. We’re the number one DC investment-only, DCIO firm. We have 70,000 DC plans and we’re the only provider, I think that’s really global. Most of the assets at BlackRock are investing to finance retirement, and we’ve been at the forefront of innovation and advocacy for retirement solutions throughout our history. It’s a key part of our growth. And the innovation that we’re doing in LifePath Paycheck, we think is exciting and a significant area of our future organic growth.
Laurence Fink : As I said in my prepared remarks, we have 14 corporations that are preparing to transform their defined contribution plan to LifePath Paycheck. So the conversations we’re having with so many other clients is enormous. Many clients wanted to see actual implementation of these plans. As we said in the prepared remarks, the first implementation of the first plan is going to be in the next few weeks. We’ll have many announcements about that and we plan to really make that a big issue for us going forward. We believe, as I said before, this is going to change retirement. The movement away from defined benefits to defined contributions have left many, many individuals stranded in making the decisions of their own retirement by themselves.
And this eliminates some of the uncertainty for retirement. The Target Date has eliminated a lot of the variability of retirement, but there has been no transformation in terms of bringing — once you are retired, how do you know what you have. And through this innovation of integrating investment strategies around insurance wrappers can really narrow the outcomes that the individual can have a very narrow corridor of what the dollar amount that they’re going to be earning each month. And as I said in my letter, with growing longevity, retirement is going to become a bigger and bigger issue. And having this type of certainty really will alleviate some of the fear. As I said, our conversations are broad. And let me be clear, the conversations are also now beginning in Europe and other places, too.
So we look at this as a major component of our future growth rates over the next three to five years. Obviously, it’s not the highest fee-based product. It is like a Target Date product. But — so it’s — but it can generate more connectivity with more clients, deeper relationships with all our clients. And so this is something that I’m very proud of what the firm has created and I do believe it’s going to transform BlackRock as a leader in retirement benefits.
Operator: We’ll go back to Patrick Davitt with Autonomous Research.
Patrick Davitt : My question is on Europe ETFs. Obviously, the active to passive equity flow mix continues to track more like the U.S. and Europe so far this year. So firstly, could you update us on the defensibility of your positioning around that theme? And to what extent you’re seeing more aggressive price competition? And finally, higher level, to what extent you’re seeing a real change in how ETFs are bought and sold in Europe that could portend this so called trend continuing more indefinitely?
Martin Small : As we mentioned, we had about $67 billion of iShares inflows in the first quarter, led by core fixed income. I bet the business is running in a very strong way, high single-digit asset growth, mid-single-digit base fee growth. All the trends globally are very strong. But we have been stressing and I’m glad for the question, just the real strength and competitive position of the iShares business in Europe. European iShares continues to lead the market with about 30% market share of inflows that’s 2x the inflows of the number two player. And our inflows exceed the two and three players combined. Our iShares franchise in Europe is $850 billion AUM that’s bigger than next five players combined. So we think we have a real outsized opportunity to grow ETFs in the U.K. and Europe.
And obviously, the competitive dynamics there, I think are very, very different than they are here in the United States in terms of the buying units, how buying units are sold. This is largely a private banking market that uses exchange traded funds through discretionary private management programs and iShares is really a very strong and preferred provider. I want you to think about it this way. The United States built trillions and trillions of dollars ETF business with a national best bid, best offer system, a unified securities regulator, national exchange. Europe has more fragmented markets and has been growing, growing and growing. So we really see, obviously, regulation is trending favorable in Europe, the buying dynamics as very favorable and iShares is in a great market leadership position there, we think to post outsized growth.
