Asset management firm BlackRock has taken a minority stake in SpiderRock Advisors, which provides option overlay strategies to advisors and institutions and manages $2.5 billion in assets. The investment adds to BlackRock’s personalization and tax management capabilities for separately managed accounts.
BlackRock declined to comment beyond a press release.
The firm said it would distribute and market SpiderRock strategies to financial advisors through its market leaders and consultants in U.S. wealth advisory.
Details of the transaction were not disclosed, but BlackRock expects it to build on its own personalized SMA capabilities, which now includes Aperio, a creator of tailored index strategies that the asset manager acquired late last year.
“BlackRock continues to invest to equip wealth managers with innovative solutions that support the twin objectives of better after-tax performance and personalization. We are eager to help advisors access SpiderRock Advisors’ capabilities to help them build tax-efficient, highly customizable portfolios that can generate income and manage risk for their clients,” said Martin Small, head of BlackRock’s U.S. Wealth Advisory business, in a statement.
SpiderRock, which is a WealthManagement.com 2021 Industry Awards finalist for its Exchange Fund Replication, says its strategies are focused on risk management and yield enhancement for diversified portfolios and concentrated stock positions.
“With interest rates so low, anything you can do to enhance someone’s yield, I think would be well-received,” said Neil Bathon, founder and partner at FUSE Research.
“I am amazed as firms sit back and watch the BlackRocks and JPMorgans and Morgan Stanleys and Goldman Sachses and Charles Schwabs of the world limit their future growth opportunities by locking down the customized solution part of the business,” Bathon added.