This content is from: Corner Office

The 2014 Pension 40: Laurence Fink

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Laurence Fink
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
BlackRock

BlackRock CEO Laurence Fink has made a number of provocative statements about the retirement crisis over the past few years, from saying 401(k) plans have failed people to warning that Social Security isn’t a stand-in for savings to calling out activist hedge funds for working against the success of long-term investors. Fink, 62, has reason to care about retirement security: BlackRock is the biggest “investment-only” provider of funds — $572 billion worth — and the third-largest defined contribution manager overall. BlackRock picked up the patent for target date funds (invented in 1993) when it acquired Barclays Global Investors in 2009. In October the U.S. Department of Labor and the Treasury Department issued guidance on how to put insurance products in target date funds; the model is partly based on similar funds offered by BlackRock in 2007. Today the Holy Grail of 401(k)s is to provide guaranteed lifetime income to participants through insurance. Plan sponsors, increasingly focused on reducing fees, primarily through index funds, are also watching BlackRock, which sells the popular iShares exchange-traded funds. In 2013, BlackRock introduced CoRI, an online tool addressing one of the biggest holes in defined contribution plans: letting retirees know just how far their money will last. BlackRock is also active in defined benefits. As one of the largest providers of fixed income in the world, the firm has been telling investors that their portfolios are overexposed to interest rate risk. BlackRock recommends that clients evaluate their bond portfolios and allocate as much as 30 percent to unconstrained funds, which can seek opportunities anywhere in the world and in any sector.

The 2014 Pension 40

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Bruce Rauner
Illinois
John and
Laura Arnold

Laura and John
Arnold Foundation
Randi Weingarten
American Federation of Teachers
Rahm Emanuel
Chicago
David Boies
Boies, Schiller & Flexner
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Randy DeFrehn
National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans
Damon Silvers
AFL-CIO
Laurence Fink
BlackRock
Chris Christie
New Jersey
Robin Diamonte
United Technologies Corp.
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Ted Eliopoulos
California Public Employees’ Retirement System
John Kline
Minnesota
J. Mark Iwry
U.S. Treasury Department
Gina Raimondo
Rhode Island
Phyllis Borzi
U.S. Labor Department
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Orrin Hatch
Utah
Abigail Johnson
Fidelity Investments
Ted Wheeler
Oregon
Caitlin Long
Morgan Stanley
James Hoffa
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
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Amy Kessler
Prudential Financial
Alejandro
García Padilla

Puerto Rico
Christopher Klein
U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Caifornia
Steven Rhodes
Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
Kevin de León
California
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David Draine
Pew Charitable Trusts
Jordan Marks
National Public Pension Coalition
Sam Liccardo
California
Joshua Rauh
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Karen Ferguson and Karen Friedman
Pension Rights Center
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Timothy Blake
Moody’s Investors Service
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Center for Retirement Initiatives, Georgetown University
Edward (Ted) Siedle
Benchmark Financial Services
Daniel Loeb
Third Point
Judy Mares
Employee Benefits Security Administration, U.S. Labor Department
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Andrew Biggs
American Enterprise Institute
Andy Stern
Columbia University
Kenneth Mehlman
KKR & Co.
Teresa Ghilarducci
New School for Social Research
A. Melissa Moye
U.S. Treasury Department


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