Designed with the end consumer in mind, the BlackRock Plan for Income provides advisers a set of tools and conversation starters to help construct a personalised action plan for clients in order to help them reach their financial goals.
Using the toolkit, advisers can help consumers pin-point big life events, such as starting a new business, buying a property or saving for retirement, which are expected to have a significant financial impact on their future.
Users, both consumers and advisers, then have the option of accessing a product finder that will suggest a mix of passive and active BlackRock products investors they can then discuss.
“Over-dependence on history"
At the launch of the BlackRock Plan for Income, the head of EMEA retail at BlackRock, Alex Hoctor-Duncan, said, many people in the market currently display an “over-dependence on history and an over-reliance on property to provide for the future.
"Given the low yields on offer now, we hope this new tool will enable savers to become investors.”
Part of the impetus for the plan was the misalignment between what clients want and what they need, he said, adding that the 2013 BlackRock Investor Pulse Survey – conducted across 12 countries – revealed that 68% of Britons are still unaware of how much they need to save towards retirement and many choose to rely heavily on cash savings.
Already launched in Italy and Germany and soon to be introduced to investors in France, this facility gives clients an idea of how much money they will need to save and the routes they can take to invest the amount they want.
Jeremy Roberts, head of UK retail sales at Blackrock, put it to International Adviser recently: “Does a client with £20,000 to invest care about beating a notional benchmark? No, they want to be safe in the knowledge that their goal will be met, whatever that goal is.”
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