BlackRock Allocation Fund: A Diversified Investment Strategy

The BlackRock Allocation Fund offers a diversified investment strategy that's designed to help you reach your long-term financial goals. This fund invests in a mix of asset classes, including stocks, bonds, and cash, to provide a balanced portfolio.

By spreading your investments across different asset classes, you can reduce your risk and increase your potential returns. This is because different asset classes tend to perform well in different market conditions.

The BlackRock Allocation Fund has a team of experienced investment professionals who actively manage the fund to ensure it remains aligned with your investment objectives. They'll make adjustments as needed to keep your portfolio on track.

The fund's diversified approach can help you ride out market fluctuations and avoid significant losses. This is because a diversified portfolio is less dependent on the performance of any single asset class.

This fund is a core, diversified solution that seeks to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns via broad asset class tilts.

It's constructed in a scalable and cost-efficient way using iShares ETFs and BlackRock mutual funds.

The fund focuses on balancing the trade-offs between risk and return by taking a long-term approach.

Carefully consider the fund's investment objectives, risk factors, and charges and expenses before investing.

Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal, so it's essential to read the prospectus carefully before investing.

The fund is distributed by BlackRock Investments, LLC, and its affiliates, which is a well-established and reputable company in the industry.

The fund's prospectus, which contains important information about the fund's investment objectives, risk factors, and charges and expenses, can be obtained by visiting the iShares ETF and BlackRock Fund prospectus pages.

The Blackrock Allocation Fund has shown impressive performance over the years, with a total return of 8.82% as of December 31, 2024, outperforming its benchmark by 5.67%.

The fund's performance is shown after deduction of ongoing charges, with any entry and exit charges excluded from the calculation. It's worth noting that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance, but it can give you an idea of how the fund has been managed in the past.

In the chart, we can see the fund's total return and benchmark return for each year from 2015 to 2024. The total return ranged from -2.27% in 2015 to 19.72% in 2020, while the benchmark return ranged from -0.78% in 2015 to 13.34% in 2020.

Here's a breakdown of the fund's performance over the past few years:

The fund's performance is also evaluated based on its ranking within its category. As of December 31, 2024, the fund ranked 77 out of 300 in the Morningstar category, with a Morningstar Quartile of 1. This indicates that the fund has performed well within its category over the past year.

The BlackRock Global Allocation Fund is designed to be a core investment for long-term growth. It has a flexible mandate and broad investment universe that allows its management team to adapt to changing markets.

The fund seeks to maximize total return and invests globally in equity, debt, and short-term securities with no prescribed limits. In normal market conditions, it will invest at least 70% of its total assets in the securities of corporate and governmental issuers.

The fund's management team is experienced and well-resourced, with a focus on seeking out the most attractive investment opportunities around the world while managing volatility. They use a flexible multi-asset strategy to seek better outcomes.

Here are some key investment strategies used by the fund:

A Flexible Multi-Asset Strategy is essential in today's markets, where uncertainty is high and investment opportunities are vast. BlackRock's Global Allocation Fund takes an experienced and well-resourced team to seek out the most attractive investment opportunities around the world while managing volatility.

The fund seeks returns competitive with global stocks over market cycles but with less risk. It has historically outperformed global stocks with less volatility, with a 9.97% annualized standard deviation compared to 15.32% for global stocks.

The fund's management team is experienced and well-resourced, with a flexible multi-asset strategy to seek better outcomes. They have a proven track record of delivering returns competitive with global equities with one-third less volatility.

The fund's broad diversification, with typically over 1000 issuers across 80 countries and 40 currencies, helps to mitigate risk. It is constantly seeking to strike an appropriate balance of risk and return.

Here's a summary of the fund's performance:

In today's markets, a nimble approach is essential to capture investment opportunities. The fund's unconstrained approach allows it to adapt to changing market conditions and seek out the best opportunities.

Michael Gates, CFA, is the Head of Model Portfolio Solutions in the Americas for BlackRock's Multi-Asset Strategies & Solutions group and is the lead portfolio manager for BlackRock's Target Allocation and Target Income Series of Managed Portfolios.

Michael has over 20 years of experience in the industry, with a background in research roles focused on fixed income and alternative investment strategies. He previously worked at Barclays Global Investors and Barra.

Lisa O'Connor, Managing Director, is the Global Head of Model Portfolio Solutions and the Deputy CIO for Solutions at BlackRock. She has over 20 years of experience in the industry, with a background in quantitative investment strategies.

Prior to joining BlackRock, Ms. O'Connor served as the Head of Global Portfolio Management for SSGA's Global Macro fund, utilizing both proprietary quantitative and fundamental strategies for alpha generation.

Rick Rieder leads the Global Allocation Team as CIO of Global Fixed Income, overseeing the investment process. He's responsible for harnessing macro, regional, and thematic views to complement bottom-up fundamental research.

The team has implemented a more robust framework to enhance the investment process. This framework integrates systematic strategies to monitor investment trends and augment positioning.

Russ Koesterich, CIO, is a Portfolio Manager on the Global Allocation Team. He brings a wealth of experience to the table.

Asset allocation, risk management, and security selection decisions are synchronized across the platform. This synchronization enables strategies to create unique expressions and manage exposures swiftly and precisely.

Research collaboration with Fundamental Fixed Income (FFI) credit analysts worldwide has been increased. This collaboration helps to identify investment trends and opportunities.

The Global Allocation Platform's leadership has created a robust investment process. This process enables the team to find differentiated alpha and make informed investment decisions.

Sustainability Characteristics provide investors with specific non-traditional metrics that help evaluate funds on environmental, social, and governance characteristics. These metrics are not indicative of current or future performance and should not be considered solely or in isolation.

Business Involvement metrics can help investors gain a more comprehensive view of specific activities in which a fund may be exposed through its investments. BlackRock uses MSCI ESG Research data to calculate these metrics, providing a summed up view across holdings and translating it to a fund's market value exposure to listed Business Involvement areas.

Business Involvement metrics are only displayed if at least 1% of the fund's gross weight includes securities covered by MSCI ESG Research. This means that not all funds will have this information available.

Sustainability Characteristics provide investors with specific non-traditional metrics that help evaluate funds on environmental, social, and governance characteristics. These metrics are provided for transparency and information purposes only.

They do not indicate current or future performance, nor do they represent the potential risk and reward profile of a fund. They should be considered alongside other metrics and information.

Sustainability Characteristics do not change a fund's investment objective or constrain the fund's investable universe. Unless stated in fund documentation, the metrics do not indicate that an ESG or Impact focused investment strategy or exclusionary screens will be adopted by a fund.

To be included in MSCI ESG Fund Ratings, a fund must meet certain criteria. A fund must have 65% (or 50% for bond funds and money market funds) of its gross weight from securities with ESG coverage by MSCI ESG Research.

The fund's holdings date must be less than one year old, and the fund must have at least ten securities. This means that only funds with recent holdings and a sufficient number of securities can be included in MSCI ESG Fund Ratings.

Here are the MSCI methodologies behind Sustainability Characteristics:

Business Involvement metrics can help investors gain a more comprehensive view of specific activities in which a fund may be exposed through its investments.

Business Involvement metrics are not indicative of a fund’s investment objective, and, unless otherwise stated in fund documentation and included within a fund’s investment objective, do not change a fund’s investment objective or constrain the fund’s investable universe.

For more information regarding a fund's investment strategy, please see the fund's prospectus.

Business Involvement metrics are calculated by BlackRock using data from MSCI ESG Research, which provides a profile of each company’s specific business involvement.

This data is then used to provide a summed up view across holdings and translate it to a fund's market value exposure to the listed Business Involvement areas.

Business Involvement metrics are designed only to identify companies where MSCI has conducted research and identified as having involvement in the covered activity.

As a result, it is possible there is additional involvement in these covered activities where MSCI does not have coverage.

Business Involvement metrics are only displayed if at least 1% of the fund’s gross weight includes securities covered by MSCI ESG Research.

The BlackRock Allocation Fund's portfolio is a carefully constructed mix of equity and fixed income investments. This fund seeks to balance risk and return by focusing on the long term.

The fund's equity holdings are led by top stocks like Microsoft Corp, NVIDIA Corp, and Apple Inc, which account for a significant portion of the portfolio. Here are the top equity holdings:

The fund also invests in a range of fixed income securities, including government bonds from countries like Germany, the UK, and Australia. These bonds provide a relatively stable source of income and help to balance out the risk of the equity holdings.

Let's take a closer look at the holdings of various funds. For instance, the BlackRock Global Allocation Fund (Aust) has a broad investment universe, with typically over 1000 issuers across 80 countries and 40 currencies.

The fund's holdings are well-diversified, with a globally diversified investment approach to help mitigate risk. This is reflected in its portfolio, which is constructed in a scalable and cost-efficient way using iShares ETFs and BlackRock mutual funds.

The fund's exposure breakdowns reveal that it has a significant allocation to equity, with 19.26% of its weight in the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF. This is a notable holding, given the fund's goal of delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns via broad asset class tilts.

Here's a breakdown of the fund's top holdings:

The fund also has significant holdings in fixed income securities, including Treasury notes and German government bonds. These holdings are part of the fund's effort to strike an appropriate balance of risk and return.

Overall, the BlackRock Global Allocation Fund (Aust) has a diverse portfolio that reflects its goal of delivering long-term growth with lower volatility.

As you're building your portfolio and holdings, it's essential to understand the legal aspects involved. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal.

The fund's portfolio management team expresses their opinions, but these may change as conditions vary. The information and opinions are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources, but are not necessarily all-inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy.

You can find the fund's prospectuses on the iShares ETF and BlackRock Mutual Fund prospectus pages. Carefully read the prospectus before investing.

Here are the key legal documents to be aware of:

These documents provide essential information about the fund's operations and your rights as an investor.