Russ Koesterich of BlackRock - Global Strategies and Market Outlook

Mar 4, 2025

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Today on the podcast, Rusty and Robyn are joined by Russ Koesterich, portfolio manager at BlackRock in Denver, CO. Russ Koesterich, CFA, JD, Managing Director and portfolio manager, is a member of the Global Allocation team and the lead portfolio manager of the GA Selects Model Portfolios. Mr. Koesterich's service with BlackRock dates back to 2005, including his years with Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which merged with BlackRock in 2009. He joined the BlackRock Global Allocation team in 2016 as Head of Asset Allocation and was named a portfolio manager of the fund in 2017. Previously, he was BlackRock's Global Chief Investment Strategist and Chairman of the Investment Committee for the Model Portfolio Solutions business, and formerly served as the Global Head of Investment Strategy for scientific active equities and as senior portfolio manager in the US Market Neutral Group. Prior to joining BGI, Mr. Koesterich was the Chief North American Strategist at State Street Bank and Trust. He began his investment career at Instinet Research Partners where he occupied several positions in research, including Director of Investment Strategy for both U.S. and European research, and Equity Analyst. He is a frequent contributor to financial news media. Mr. Koesterich earned a BA in history from Brandeis University, a JD from Boston College and an MBA from Columbia University. He is a CFA® Charterholder.

Key Takeaways

[04:30] - Career highlights and how Russ ended up in his current position at BlackRock
[06:56] - When it comes to global allocation, what is Russ’ overriding investment philosophy in building those portfolios?
[08:24] - What makes the GA Select model portfolios different from other global, multi-asset model portfolios?
[10:06] - What is Russ’ strategic view on non-traditional asset classes?
[11:31] - What is Russ’ philosophical view on active management?
[13:23] - What is Russ’ overall market outlook for the coming year?
[16:01] - What are some of Trump’s initiatives that investors should keep an eye out for and how does Russ expect the economy to react to these moves?
[18:19] - What are Russ’ areas of focus within the stock market looking forward to the remainder of 2025?
[20:02] - What’s Russ’ current view on non-US stocks?
[21:10] - What’s Russ’ current view on Fixed Income and the Bond Market?
[23:01] - What’s Russ’ current outlook and positioning for alternatives, real assets and crypto currencies?
[24:18] - What is currently Russ’ favorite investment idea?
[25:36] - How does Russ maintain his energy and health, both physical and mental, to ensure he’s performing at a high level?

Quotes

[10:52] - “The gold exposure is one that a lot of people ask, what does gold do? Gold is a store of value. It enables you to have something in the portfolio that you would expect to hold up better if we continue to see developed countries running these huge deficits. It’s a very specific exposure, it serves a very specific purpose in the portfolio, but again having the flexibility to have a small amount of that really results in…building a more robust multi-asset portfolio.” ~ Russ Koesterich

[12:28] - “What [our actively managed funds] all have in common is, again, very specific mandates, very specific risk control and the ability to access types of investments [or] alpha streams that you really can’t do with passive products.” ~ Russ Koesterich

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