BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink’s total pay skyrocketed to $37.7m (£28.5m) in 2025 after the asset manager posted a “historic” final quarter, with its assets rising to $14tn.
According to a proxy filing published last week, Fink’s compensation increased from $30.8m in 2024 to $37.7m in 2025. The pay package included $1.5m in base pay and a $10.6m bonus, with his total compensation boosted by a $6.5m rise in stock awards.
Fink’s pay increase comes as the world’s largest asset manager reported assets rising to $14tn, supported by strong inflows across the business, including its alternatives platform in the fourth quarter of 2025.
The firm recorded a record $698bn of net inflows for the full year, including $342bn in the fourth quarter. Within private markets, BlackRock reported $12.7bn of net inflows during the quarter, with private credit accounting for $7.2bn.
“BlackRock entered 2026 from a position of strength: record flows, double-digit organic base fee growth in the fourth quarter, a new assets under management high of $14tn, and a platform that is unified, integrated, and relevant for today’s opportunity set,” Fink said in his annual letter to investors, published last week.
In the letter, Fink outlined BlackRock’s anticipated growth in private markets, including a fundraising target of cumulative $400bn by 2030.
“We have scaled platforms across two of the fastest-growing sectors in private markets, infrastructure and private credit,” he said. ” And we’re executing on a growing opportunity to bring the benefits of private markets investments to more investors, including insurance and wealth clients, and individuals saving for retirement.”
Among the business’s successes last year, Fink highlighted the private markets SMA solution with Partners Group to enable greater retail access to private equity, private credit and real assets. He also noted changes allowing alternatives to be included in 401(k) plans in the US, offering private markets exposure to retirement savers.
A theme throughout his letter was that large decade-defining events have become routine, such as wars and technological advancements, and are “too often” being filtered through a “short term lens”.
“Daily market moves are treated as signals of lasting change, and complex economic or technological transitions are compressed into headlines,” he said.
“But over time, staying invested has mattered far more than getting the timing right.”
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