By Rebecca Ungarino

In his latest annual open letter, published on Monday, BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink writes about private markets, retirement, and expanding access to investing: what anyone who follows the firm or financial markets would expect him to talk about.

Fink winks at that notion as he focuses on how important it is that more people start to invest and how his company can help: "Given that BlackRock is a fiduciary and the largest asset manager in the world, some readers might contend I'm talking my own book. Fair enough. But it's also the book we intentionally chose -- long before it was a bestseller."

He adds: "From the start, we believed that when people can invest better, they can live better -- and that's exactly why we built BlackRock."

So what is absent from Fink's letter this year is more noteworthy than his frequent talking points on the U.S. retirement savings crisis and the demand for infrastructure and private credit investment. This year, there were no comments on diversity, equity, and inclusion or sustainable investing frameworks, matters that have featured in his widely followed letters in past years and still remain part of BlackRock's business.

Fink's 2025 letter underlines BlackRock's backpedaling in those areas and U.S. financial firms' wider retreat from publicly touting workplace diversity and climate-aware investing.

In other words: the letter, which is viewed as influencing big companies' priorities on and off Wall Street, drives home that corporate sustainability as we once knew it is dead.

As close readers of his missives know, this isn't Fink's first annual open letter without mention of diversity initiatives or environmental, social, and governance principles, or ESG, as part of BlackRock's business and investment decision-making. That dialing down started several years ago, following pushback from Republican officials and activists and before President Donald Trump ordered public and private sectors to strip away diversity and environmental programs.

Fink's letters, which BlackRock has published since 2012, have positioned him as an influencer. He has the power to move markets and sway management teams' thinking. BlackRock is one of the most significant shareholders in hundreds of companies through funds on behalf of clients.

So Fink's clients, competitors, and fellow chief executives parse his words for windows into his big-picture strategy. This year there is no mention of "climate," "net zero," "sustainability," or "sustainable investing." There's certainly no "ESG," which Fink has sworn off as a term he uses but is still embedded in different BlackRock products. He doesn't talk of an energy "transition" but of electricity demand and what he refers to as "energy pragmatism" -- balancing a mix of renewable energies and oil and gas.

That's a departure from years past, when the market was somewhat more hospitable to these issues. In 2021, Fink wrote that he had watched "how purposeful companies, with better ESG profiles, have outperformed their peers," and in 2022 he wrote that the next 1,000 unicorns would be "startups that help the world decarbonize and make the energy transition affordable for all consumers."

It's not surprising that Fink also made no mention of diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, in his letter, but it is worth noting because of his earlier comments. "We are at a moment of tremendous economic pain," he wrote during the pandemic in his 2021 letter. "We are also at a historic crossroads on the path to racial justice -- one that cannot be solved without leadership from companies."

In reviewing Fink's 2025 letter, investors will come across views on the economy, private assets, and retirement savings that will sound familiar because they highlight BlackRock's strategy and priorities. But depending on how investors view the firm's U-turn on emphasizing ESG and DEI, they may also walk away feeling relieved or disappointed.

Write to Rebecca Ungarino at rebecca.ungarino@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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March 31, 2025 06:00 ET (10:00 GMT)

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