My 401k offers target date index funds but only with BlackRock. The public equivalent of my 401k TDIF 2055 is LIVIX. I noticed that BlackRock TDIFs 2045 and up all have extremely low percentage of bonds (less than 10%) compared to equivalent funds at competitors. LIVIX is about 1% whereas the Vanguard and Fidelity equivalents for 2055 are just under 10%.
Does anyone know why BlackRock TDIFs have such low percentage of bonds?
Hey @diwhitman!
Well, keep in mind both 10% and 1% are both “very low” bond allocation. You’re either 90% stocks or 99% stocks. Either way, almost entirely stocks.
As far as why, I could only speculate, but I’d guess somewhere in New York there’s a room full of analysts poring over historical stock and bond market data, projecting out which asset allocation is more likely to put investors in better shape come the target year and beyond. For whatever reason those analysts at Vanguard and Blackrock came to similar but slightly different conclusions regarding bond allocations. I hesitate to pick a winner and say which is best, but I can easily call them both great and say it would be very difficult to know in advance which will outperform. Or maybe the blackrock guys just wanted to be different and when 1% bonds because nobody likes bonds right now and they’re trying to attract new investors?!
Here’s a look at the trailing performance over the last 10 years. As you can see, it really doesn’t make a difference. 
