Incorporating BlackRock’s risk models and analytics with a tremendous amount of computing power, Aladdin can track multiple risks on a universe of investment positions through any scenario across asset classes and geographies.

Aladdin can show advisors the potential impact of inflation, shifting commodities prices, regional recessions and political events to help plan for changes across the world.

“We’re also working with home offices to provide them with risk management assistance on their entire enterprise,” says Kwong.  “When you think about the total numbers of accounts, there are millions of them out there, that require scale and sophistication that only Aladdin can provide.”

Aladdin’s accounting and investment management offerings can act as the investment infrastructure for an entire advisory practice, like a digital CIO for the firm. The tool can be adapted to take a smaller role to support a human investment management workforce. Aladdin Risk can be deployed to help manage client portfolios and to measure risk within the portfolios of third-party managers.

Aladdin can model large and very complex portfolios, supporting investment decisions across asset classes, according to BlackRock. For investment managers, Aladdin allows seamless one-click rebalancing against the market or custom benchmarks across thousands of investments.

“There are advisors that want to use Aladdin because of the way risks can be interacting within the portfolios,” says Kwong. “They could end up with more risk than expected. There are ways to mitigate certain kinds of risk like interest rates or foreign exchange. Aladdin works as a confirmation, an eye-opener to the risk that exists, and it allows advisors to take steps to address that.”

Aladdin also includes trading tools. The transparency provided can help investment managers save hours of time that might otherwise be spent attempting to reconcile data between disconnected systems, according to BlackRock.

Data flows faster as time moves on, so more sophisticated workflows and higher-powered technology are necessary to parse the sheer volume of knowledge available to investors today. Aladdin cannot only accept a deluge of information in real time basis, but its algorithms can parse that information to make it meaningful and useable for investors, the company says.

Aladdin and Aladdin Risk are made available to advisors and institutions at a range of price points, depending on the level of access required, according to BlackRock.

“We’re working with advisors in iRetire to translate a dollar amount of investments into a value, into what that means in terms of a sustainable retirement income based on the investor’s age,” says Kwong.