Great Gray Trust Company to Collaborate With BlackRock

Great Gray Trust Company LLC selected BlackRock to provide a custom glidepath that tactically allocates across public and private markets for Great Gary’s first target-date retirement solution featuring private equity and private credit exposures, according to a June 26 BlackRock statement.

Great Gray is a provider of trustee and administrative services to collective investment trusts, with more than $210 billion in assets, as of March 31, 2025.

BlackRock will also provide its index equity, index fixed income and for the retirement solution.

BlackRock noted that it believes “solutions that incorporate private market allocations in a target date glidepath provide more opportunities to generate value while managing risk.” BlackRock said it believes the portfolio of the future will be made up of 50% public equities, 30% public fixed income and 20% private markets.

BlackRock and Great Gray have done business with each other since 2013. As part of the latest offering, advisory firm Wilshire Advisors LLC will supervise the implementation of the strategy, including providing liquidity management.

Nick Nefouse, BlackRock global head of retirement solutions and head of LifePath, said in a statement that Great Gray is clear about what it wants to add to the retirement industry and has been a great collaborator.

Private Assets Are Popular, According to BlackRock

According to BlackRock, private assets have become “an increasingly important driver of economic growth and source of return for many institutional and high-net worth investors.”

The company said it has recently seen an increase in demand for exposure to private assets in defined contribution plans. According to a recent survey of defined contribution advisers, 21% of advisers said they plan to include private markets investments in the plans they manage.

Rob Barnett, CEO of Great Gray Trust Company, said in a statement that historically access to private markets has been only granted to institutions, noting that this has left many retirement savers behind as capital markets have changed.

BlackRock’s research found that including “purpose-built private market solutions” into a target-date solution can add 50 basis points in portfolio returns annually over the lifecycle of a target date solution.

This “outperformance,” which is linked to having private markets exposures compounded over 40 years, can amount to approximately 15% more money for a retiree, according to the firm.