Quote of the week

"[People] don’t expect retirement to begin with social security and sit on the back deck in a lounge chair for the rest of their lives. This group really wants to remain active."

Jeff Cimini, head of personal retirement at Merrill Lynch

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BlackRock, the asset management titan, has reported net income of $572 million for the opening three months of the year, up $17 million on the previous quarter and $4 million on the first quarter last year.

The firm’s assets under management rose by 5 per cent in the three months to 31 March, from $3.5 trillion to $3.7 trillion. Compared with a year ago when the New York-headquartered investment manager had $3.6 trillion in client assets, the figure is a smaller improvement.

Retail long-term assets increased by 7 per cent to $387.5 billion, which the firm attributed to strong inflows of $1.3 billion from retail and high net worth clients in the Americas.

iShares, BlackRock’s ETF business, grew its client assets by 13 per cent to $671.7 billion, driven by net inflows of $18.2 billion, up 74 per cent from the same period last year. The firm said that the acquisition of the Canadian ETP firm Claymore Investments in March accounted for $7.3 billion of AuM, largely in equity and fixed income.

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