BlackRock is watching the consolidation of the advice market in Australia “very closely”, including the usage of model portfolio solutions within a single firm.
In a Q&A piece with BlackRock Australia’s director of retail advisory, Gareth Hughes, he discussed the recent consolidation in advice. Hughes has worked at BlackRock for over a decade and is currently head of adviser distribution.
Research by Oliver Wyman has found up to 20 per cent of wealth and asset managers globally are set to be acquired in the next five years and there could be 120-150 significant transactions in wealth management by 2029.
In Australia, M&A activity has included numerous deals by firms such as AZ NGA, AWAG, licensee Count, as well as major deals such as CC Capital’s acquisition of Insignia Financial.
Hughes said: “Consolidation is very real and being driven by things like succession planning, pooling resources and even offshore capital. We are watching this very closely.
“We are really developing our tech around model portfolio solutions so to be able to cater for more investment appetites that sit within a single firm.”
Expanding on this to Money Management, BlackRock said it collaborates closely with advisers, licensees and dealer groups to offer solutions such as model portfolios.
“As industry dynamics evolve, BlackRock continues to remain adaptable to adviser needs, and is always looking at ways to innovate and better service practices from a product perspective.”
Hughes gave the example of Lonsec and Evidentia, which itself merged in February 2025, where BlackRock is offering tailored portfolios. Tailored Portfolios at Scale (TPAS) is Lonsec Investment Solutions’ collaboration with BlackRock to deliver managed account solutions to advisers, allowing them to draw on Lonsec’s investment selection with BlackRock governance oversight and multi-asset investment team expertise.
“This allows for a firm or an adviser to apply some of their own tweaks to a dealer group or parent model yet remain within the scheme,” Hughes said.
BlackRock acquired a minority stake in Evidentia parent company Generation Development Group (GDG) in May 2025 for $25 million to support the development and rollout of retirement products.
When it comes to what the firm has been hearing from advisers, he said how they can invest more in private markets has been a common theme.
“For retail advice, there is still a gap when it comes to private markets strategies, and more broadly alternatives, that are fit-for-purpose. In particular, alternatives that are more defensive in nature and genuinely uncorrelated with equity and credit markets, especially in times of market stress.”
Private markets is an area where BlackRock has been investing heavily in with the acquisition of global credit investment manager HPS Investment Partners as well as private markets research house Preqin.
With these acquisitions, it has set up an integrated private credit franchise known as Private Financing Solutions (PFS) with around US$220 billion in client assets which will combine private credit, GP and LP solutions, and private and liquid CLO businesses into one integrated platform.
For wealth clients, it intends to provide personalised multi-asset wealth portfolios at scale with customised model solutions that incorporate public and private market investments.
It has also signed an agreement to manage $121 billion for Citi Wealth clients in almost 100 countries, the latest development in its wealth management plans.
