BlackRock broadened its separately managed account offerings for wealth managers and financial advisers through the acquisition of a minority stake in SpiderRock Advisors.
The deal was announced Tuesday in a news release from BlackRock.
SpiderRock managed $2.5 billion as of March 31 in options-based strategies in customized SMAs for U.S. wealthy individuals, the release said.
SpiderRock's strategies focus on risk management and yield enhancement for diversified portfolios and concentrated stock portfolios.
BlackRock's U.S. Wealth Advisory business primarily will handle marketing and distribution of SpiderRock's strategies and advisory services to wealth managers and other financial intermediaries, the release said.
BlackRock will not offer SpiderRock's options-based SMAs to institutional investors, BlackRock spokeswoman Paige Hofman said in an email.
BlackRock declined to provide the financial terms of the deal and the size of the stake it acquired in SpiderRock, Ms. Hofman said.
The deal closed Monday.
As of March 31, BlackRock's SMA business totaled about $190 billion.
The minority stake in SpiderRock is BlackRock's second move so far this year toward increasing its share of the wealth management market.
In February, BlackRock purchased Aperio Group, a provider of customized, tax-optimized indexed separate accounts for ultra-high-net-worth individuals, for $1 billion. The acquisition of Aperio added about $36 billion to BlackRock's SMA business.
"BlackRock continues to equip wealth managers with innovative solutions that support the twin objectives of better after-tax performance and personalization" said Martin Small, managing director and head of the firm's U.S. wealth advisory unit, in the release.
"Between potential tax reform, historically low interest rates and volatile equity markets, options-based strategies and solutions can often solve client objectives more efficiently than conventional allocations and techniques," said Eric Metz, SpiderRock's president and CIO, in the release.
BlackRock managed a total of $9 trillion as of March 31.