BlackRock

After building an empire on passive funds, the world’s largest asset manager is readying a suite of actively managed funds.

Like lagging retail giants, wealth management firms risk ruin by failing to recognize changing customer expectations or by squandering the opportunity to evolve their business model.

The longer the trend continues, the more likely its effects could spread to bank earnings and the economy.

“People need to know what the rules are,” an industry consultant says.

The delay was partly prompted by BlackRock’s testimony that policymakers, not index compilers, should set corporate governance standards.

The fund will give investors exposure to noninvestment-grade bonds for less than half the cost of its flagship high-yield offering.

The move comes as part of a wider push to deepen the firm’s offerings across income-generating assets.

The funds gained an average of 13.3% a year over the past decade, which began before the financial crisis.

The asset manager’s institutional assets have grown in each of the past five years, increasing about 45% since 2011.

The manager expects the rule would remove some of the impediments faced by wannabe ETF issuers.

One option for clients to consider is municipal bonds, which offer tax-free yields.

Data reported by FUSE Research.

In price wars wars, the firm bolts ahead in the race to zero by nearly tripling its roster of commission-free funds.

The manager’s third quarter revenue topped analysts’ expectations thanks to its iShares business.

If price were the only reason for success, competitors would have simply slashed their fees.

The asset management giant is staking a big claim on the advisor desktop, according to one analyst.

Managers are asking the SEC to relax constraints it imposed on the funds as they become the fastest growing products for investing in equities.

The world’s largest asset manager is investing in technology in part to diversify revenue as investor money flows into passive.

Most of the firm’s reticence has come down to a marketing debate.

While the SEC does its due diligence into the new European rules, some of the world’s largest money managers have started to make independent decisions.