Several sustainable BlackRock funds will close, but plenty of options remain

Asset manager BlackRock said it will liquidate 15 U.S. mutual funds and ETFs, seven of them focused on sustainable investing. The company said the liquidation decisions were made as part of its routine assessment of “the regulatory and operating environment as well as how our funds are meeting investors’ investment objectives.”

The closures represent a small percentage of BlackRock’s $30 billion active ETF platform and are not likely to put much of dent in its sustainable investing business overall, which has grown to more than $800 billion over the last five years and includes more than 450 investment products around the world. You can check out BlackRock’s sustainable offerings here.

Here are the 15 funds being liquidated:

• BlackRock Future Climate and Sustainable Economy ETF BECO
• BlackRock Future Tech ETF BTEK
• BlackRock Liquid Environmentally Aware Fund. (The BlackRock Wealth Liquid Environmentally Aware Fund and offshore Institutional Cash Series (ICS) Liquid Environmentally Aware Funds are not impacted and will remain open to eligible investors.)
• TempFund
• BlackRock Sustainable Advantage CoreAlpha Bond Fund
• BlackRock Sustainable International Equity Fund
• BlackRock Sustainable Low Duration Bond Fund
• BlackRock Sustainable US Growth Equity Fund
• iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Germany ETF
• iShares Frontier and Select EM ETF FM
• iShares Gold Strategy ETF IAUF
• iShares International Developed Property ETF
• iShares MSCI International Size Factor ETF ISZE
• iShares USD Systematic Bond ETF USBF
• iShares Virtual World and Life Multisector ETF IWFH

The company said the liquidations of TempFund and the BlackRock Liquid Environmentally Aware Fund were driven by 2023 amendments to SEC rules governing U.S. money market funds, among other operational considerations. The amendments increased minimum liquidity requirements for money market funds in order to provide a more substantial liquidity buffer in the event of rapid redemptions.

Investors will incur management fees until the liquidations are complete. In addition to the management fee, investors who opt to sell an ETF will bear the usual transaction and commissions costs in the secondary market. In both cases, investors may see a capital gain or loss on their investment.

The closures are expected to be completed in August and September. The exception is for the iShares Frontier and Select EM ETF, which BlackRock said will need an extended liquidation period due to liquidity challenges in what has become a shrinking frontier-market sector. BlackRock currently expects that the fund will cease trading and no longer accept creation and redemption orders after market close on or around March 31, 2025.

Read more: Sustainable investments outperformed traditional rivals in 2023