BlackRock Woos Wealth Managers With Risk ‘X-Ray’ Tool
- Morgan Stanley, UBS wealth units among those who’ve signed on
- Top pension funds, insurers, rivals already use the software
Photographer: Craig Warga/Bloomberg
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Almost three decades ago, BlackRock Inc. created software to obsessively monitor the then-fledgling firm’s financial risks. Now, after turning it into an essential tool on Wall Street, the firm is zeroing in another kind of client: financial advisers.
The world’s largest asset manager is marketing its risk analytics software, known as Aladdin, to the army of wealth managers who oversee billions of dollars in client assets. The effort has gained a foothold, with the wealth-management units of Morgan Stanley and UBS Group AG, which oversee about $5.1 trillion in client assets, using the program to screen portfolios and analyze their weak spots.