Investors looking for low-cost, index exchange-traded funds are increasingly turning to BlackRock. The company ended 2025 with about $14 trillion in assets under management, after pulling in nearly $700 billion of new client money.
The company cited its iShares ETFs as standouts, leading the growth.
While iShares index ETFs are among the most popular, along with products from Vanguard, Invesco and State Street, loading up on funds from a particular family doesn’t guarantee investing success.
Instead, the allocation of asset classes, aligned with factors such as an investor’s objectives, time horizon and risk tolerance, plays a bigger role.
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The Funds Aren’t the Plan
It’s possible to own a particular collection of iShares ETFs, or those from any other provider, and still have a portfolio that doesn’t work, says Doug Greenberg, founder and president of Pinnacle Wealth Advisors in Austin, Texas.
“The funds aren’t the plan,” he says. “The amount that is invested, how they work together and, separately, when you rebalance, how they line up with your actual life — that’s the plan.”
Researching individual funds, while helpful, isn’t the only step toward constructing a balanced portfolio.
“I have been a wealth advisor for 33 years, and the clients who sleep well aren’t the ones who picked the best fund. They’re the ones who thought it through before they had to,” Greenberg adds.
That said, here are five popular iShares ETFs issued by BlackRock. While these can be components of a diversified portfolio, these funds are not, by themselves, the ticket to a successful investing outcome:
| ETF | Expense ratio | Assets under management |
| iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (ticker: IVV) | 0.03% | $726 billion |
| iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF (IEFA) | 0.07% | $171 billion |
| iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG) | 0.03% | $137 billion |
| iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG) | 0.09% | $135 billion |
| iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF (IWF) | 0.18% | $113 billion |
iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV)
With $726 billion under management, this is the second-largest ETF, behind the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) and ahead of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY).
This fund’s expense ratio of 0.03% makes it attractive to investors and advisors alike.
S&P 500 index funds tend to serve as a portfolio anchor. According to S&P Global, the index represents about 50% of global equity market capitalization. The index itself comprises about 80% of U.S. equity market cap.
Growth stocks have been the driver of performance in recent years. In 2026, however, as sectors like tech and consumer discretionary are taking a hit, the index and this ETF are showing year-to-date declines.
The IVV offers easy, inexpensive access to a core market segment that’s a common holding for investors not only in the U.S., but globally.
iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF (IEFA)
This ETF tracks an index of large-, mid- and small-cap stocks from developed markets outside of the U.S. and Canada. Japan and the U.K. are its top-weighted countries.
Its expense ratio of 0.07% is low, despite being higher than IVV.
Non-U.S. index funds usually cost a little more because they’re more complicated to manage. Investing overseas means currency conversions, foreign taxes and markets that aren’t always as deep or efficient as the U.S.
“IEFA provides exposure to developed international markets, which is often an overlooked component in U.S.-centric portfolios,” says Osman Minkara, founder and managing director of CIG Capital Advisors in Southfield, Michigan.
iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG)
Bonds don’t deliver the returns or volatility of stocks; they serve as portfolio ballast and deliver reliable income.
Core bonds have gotten attention lately as interest rates moved higher.
“AGG isn’t exciting,” Greenberg says. “It’s not supposed to be. It’s stability and income.”
This ETF consists of government bonds and investment-grade corporate bonds. AGG’s low expense ratio of 0.03% is helped by the fact that it holds high-quality, liquid bonds, but the bigger drivers are scale and simplicity.
Greenberg says he uses this holding as part of cash flow planning.
“I tell people all the time, let’s not spend principal to generate income. And let’s not create income we are not spending,” he says. “Let’s build this so the portfolio does it for you.”
[Read: 9 of the Best Bond ETFs to Buy Now.]
iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG)
Emerging markets can, in certain market cycles, generate higher returns than developed-market stocks. However, that also comes with increased volatility.
This ETF tracks large-, mid- and small-cap stocks from an index representing 24 emerging-market countries. It’s a wide-ranging portfolio of 2,657 stocks. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSM) accounts for about 12% of the portfolio.
Its expense ratio of 0.09% reflects the increased costs associated with investing in markets that are often less liquid, less well regulated and with higher transaction costs than developed nations.
Will Allen, financial advisor and owner of Sentara Capital in Marietta, Georgia, says investors should proceed with caution due to the fund’s high exposure to Chinese stocks, currently at about 23% of its portfolio.
“Over long periods of time, the Chinese stock market has been a miserable performer,” Allen says. “Stocks in China don’t have the shareholder protections that they have in the U.S.”
iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF (IWF)
This ETF tracks an index of U.S. large- and mid-cap stocks, selected based on earnings and sales growth forecasts.
Its expense ratio is 0.18%, higher than that of other domestic index ETFs.
Investors should keep in mind that this fund measures performance of a specialized slice of the market. Growth indexes require more frequent rebalancing and screening to maintain their characteristics. That adds costs relative to a plain-vanilla index like the S&P 500, which only rebalances quarterly.
The fund’s beta is 1.18, meaning it’s about 18% more sensitive to market movements than the S&P 500. When the S&P 500 rises or falls, IWF typically moves a bit more in the same direction.
With the dominance of U.S. growth stocks in recent years, this ETF has outperformed the S&P 500. However, so far in 2026, it’s underperforming, which is the flip side of that built-in tendency to amplify market moves.
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5 Best BlackRock ETFs to Buy Now originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 04/03/26: This story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
