BlackRock Consensus 85: November 2026 fund update

• BlackRock has been managing index portfolios since 1971

• This fund provides a low-cost option for accessing multiple international markets through one investment

• The fund has a diversified mix of investments including shares, bonds, property and cash

• This fund does not currently feature on the Wealth Shortlist of funds

How it fits in a portfolio

The BlackRock Consensus 85 fund offers a low-cost solution for providing performance similar to the average pension fund in the UK. The fund is ‘multi-asset’, meaning that it invests in a combination of shares, bonds, property and cash. This allows investors access to a variety of international markets with one investment. Although the fund offers plenty of global diversification, it has a larger weighting in companies from the US and UK.

A mixture of assets spreads investment risk, which could limit up and down swings in performance over the longer term, although there are no guarantees. The fund could help provide a starting point for a diversified investment portfolio.

However, it doesn’t feature on the Wealth Shortlist as we currently have conviction in the existing multi-asset funds on the list and believe that there are alternatives for global index investment.

Manager

Steve Walker is responsible for Europe, Middle East and Africa Index Asset Allocation at BlackRock and leads the team that manage the Consensus 85 fund. Walker joined BlackRock in 2009 and previously worked as a fund manager for Barclays Global Investors before the two firms merged together.

BlackRock’s global approach allows the fund managers to work closely with other teams across the world, helping drive more efficient management of their funds. This should enable them to provide simple and efficient tracking options for investors.

Process

The investment team uses an asset allocation strategy based on the Lipper ABI Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares Pension Sector. Each month, Lipper, an investment data provider, surveys the investments held in the average UK pension fund. The results of the survey provide a starting point for BlackRock to choose which index investments to hold in the fund. Index investments aim to track the performance of a particular market.

The number 85 refers to the maximum percentage of the fund that can be invested in shares. The fund typically holds less than this and invests more in other asset classes.

The survey shows that a proportion of pension scheme assets are invested in alternative investments, like private equity or hedge funds. BlackRock believes that it’s difficult to invest in these using index investments, so the team avoids them and reallocates the money to other sectors.

The biggest investments within the fund at the end of September 2026 were to company shares from the US, UK and Europe at 29.9%, 18.7% and 12.5%, respectively. This compares to 26.0%, 23.5% and 12.7% invested in those regions 12 months ago. As positioning is based on the Lipper survey, we don’t expect these weightings to change much in the short term.

The fund also invests in emerging markets, smaller companies, and high yield bonds, all of which are higher risk.

The underlying funds have tracking error targets, which measure how closely they’re tracking their benchmark. These are monitored by BlackRock on a daily and monthly basis to ensure that each fund is being run efficiently.

The fund can lend some of its investments to others in exchange for a fee in a process known as stock lending. This offsets some of the costs involved with running the fund. Since BlackRock’s lending program started in 1981, only three borrowers with active loans have defaulted. In each case, BlackRock was able to repurchase every security out on loan with collateral on hand and without any losses to their clients. Even so, stock lending adds risk.

Culture

BlackRock is the largest asset manager in the world. The company was founded by eight partners, including current CEO Larry Fink, and is known for both active and index strategies. Employees at BlackRock are encouraged to hold shares in the company so that they’re engaged with helping the company perform well and grow. The iShares brand represents BlackRock's family of index tracking and exchange-traded funds.

As the world's largest asset manager, and with lots of resource and knowledge under its belt, BlackRock benefits from unique access to the marketplace, which can help reduce trading costs. BlackRock is also a pioneer in the index investment space and has a track record of innovation in this part of the market.

The team running this fund also works closely with various equity and risk departments across the business. We believe that this adds good support and challenge on how to run the fund effectively.

ESG Integration

BlackRock was an early signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and has offered Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)-focused funds for several years, including through its iShares range of index products. But it made a company-wide commitment to ESG only in January 2020. Since that announcement, the company has expanded its range of ESG-focused ETFs.

BlackRock’s Investment Stewardship Team aims to vote at 100% of meetings where it has the authority to do so. This team engages with companies, in conjunction with fund managers, and the results of proxy votes can be found on the BlackRock website’s ‘proxy voting search’ function, complete with rationales for votes against management.

BlackRock has faced sustained criticism in recent years for the limited support that it has given to shareholder resolutions focused on climate and other environmental and social issues. Although the firm has increased transparency around its voting activity and now routinely provides rationales for key votes, its support for environmental and social shareholder proposals has declined sharply, from about 40% in 2021 to less than 2% in 2025. BlackRock argues that many such proposals are overly prescriptive, lack economic merit or do not promote long-term shareholder value, although this position was met with scepticism by some stakeholders.

In 2024, Blackrock’s US arm stepped back from the Climate Action 100+ collective engagement initiative, citing legal considerations, although its international arm remained a member.

The BlackRock Consensus 85 fund is not managed to an ESG objective. One of the underlying bond funds incorporates ESG into its investment process, but it makes up only 7.6% of the funds’ investments. It does this by tracking an index that excludes bond issuers based on ESG ratings and their exposure to certain activities such as weapons or tobacco.

Cost

The fund has an ongoing annual fund charge of 0.21%, but a discount of 0.13% is available for HL investors, which reduces the charge to 0.08%. The fund discount is achieved through a loyalty bonus, which could be subject to tax if held outside an ISA or SIPP.

The HL platform fee of up to 0.35% per year also applies, except in the HL Junior ISA, where no platform fee applies. Both a buy and sell instruction will be subject to HL dealing charges. Find out more about our charges.

Performance

In the 10 years to the end of October 2026, the fund rose by 100.4%* versus 80.4% for the IA Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector. Although the fund has done well, the aim is not to explicitly outperform the sector but to perform similarly to it. The IA sector isn’t the same as the Lipper ABI sector that the fund bases its positioning on, but the two have performed similarly in the past. Remember, past performance isn’t a guide to future returns.

The three biggest underlying index funds as at the end of September 2026 accounted for 61.1% of the overall portfolio. This means that they should have a larger impact on performance compared with smaller investments.

In the past 12 months, the fund gained 8.1% versus 7.5% for the sector. The three largest holdings in the fund provided the largest positive contribution to performance.

Global stock markets performed well despite heightened volatility at times during the year. The US market was supported by resilient corporate earnings and continued optimism around Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the UK and Europe benefited from strength in other sectors such as financials, energy and healthcare.

Bonds detracted slightly, driven mainly by developed market government bonds. However, emerging market government bonds contributed positively to performance.

A glance at the five-year performance table below shows that the fund performed more similarly to the mixed investment sector in some years than others.