Aperio (BlackRock)
Long/Short SMAs (130/30 Quality Value, Tax-Managed Dynamic Factor)
OpenAdvisor-only. Fidelity paused new long/short SMA accounts and new funding in Dec 2025 (indefinite). Schwab, 2026-04-23: long/short SMAs capped at 30% of an RIA's Schwab assets and new enrollments capped at 200/100. Schwab, 2026-09-16: $10M minimum for new long/short SMAs.
- Assets
- $19B
- Fee a year
- 0.55%
- Minimum
- $1M
- Tracking error
- Not disclosed
- Investors
- Not disclosed
- Open to
- Not disclosed
- Leverage
- 130/30 to 200/100
- Lock-up
- None (SMA)
- Holdings
- Not disclosed
- Benchmark
- Not disclosed
- Custodians
- Fidelity, Schwab
- Access
- Through an advisor
- Launched
- 2022
- Assets, in detail
- As of 2026-09. BlackRock CFO, Q3 2026 earnings call (2026-10-14): long-short AUM is $19B, with about $12B of net inflows in 2026 to date ($4B in Q3). Aperio long-only direct indexing AUM is $175B. Cerulli: BlackRock had about $9.2B in retail long/short SMAs (Q1 2026). Aperio Form ADV (2025-12-31): $8.74B of SMA RAUM in accounts with 150%+ gross notional exposure, gross of $2.93B in borrowings.
- Fee schedule
- Published 0.55% management fee for US Large Cap 130-30 Quality Value. Other fees are tiered by gross exposure.
- Other costs
- Margin interest, stock borrow fees and regulatory charges are extra.
- Tracking error, method
- Not disclosed.
- Capacity and queue
- $1M minimum for most strategies. Custodian limits apply.
- Loss harvesting
- BlackRock: about $3B of gross losses harvested in 2025 across all Aperio tax-managed accounts (long-only and long/short combined).
Assets over time
Aperio (BlackRock), all products
- 2025-12$152BAperio Form ADV RAUM, all products (provider-level)
Sources
Checked 2026-10. Confidence: medium.
- BlackRock Q3 2026 earnings call transcript (2026-10-14)
- The Daily Upside: advisor interest in long-short SMAs nearly doubles (2026-09-01, Cerulli data for Q1 2026)
- Aperio Group Form ADV Part 1 (amendment filed 2026-04-02, RAUM as of 2025-12-31)
- RIABiz: Goldman long/short SMA offer (2026-07-18), Aperio long-short net new assets
- BlackRock Aperio long/short end-client brochure
- Cache: list of tax-aware long-short providers (third party)
- Frec: tax-aware long short providers 2026 comparison (third party)
Where to get it
The same product costs a different amount through each door. The all-in fee adds the access provider's own fee to the product fee. Placement fees, financing, and fund expenses are extra.
| Through | Their fee | All-in fee | Minimum | Onboarding and queue | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charles Schwab (RIA custody)Custodian | Not disclosed | Not disclosed | $10M | Not disclosed | Restricted |
| Fidelity (RIA custody)Custodian | Not disclosed | Not disclosed | $1M | No reopening date. Fidelity says it will support transfers to other providers. | Paused |
Other tax-aware long/short
- AQR Tax-aware long/short (Flex SMAs and TA private funds)$68.8B
- Quantinno DEALS (Core / Exchange / Overlay)$48.3B
- Cache (Brooklyn Indexing / Nuveen) Cache Long/Short$3.98B
- Two Sigma Beacon Fund (tax-aware long/short private fund)$976M
- Frec Long Short Direct Indexing and Long Short Diversify0.50%–1.30%
- Franklin Templeton (Canvas) Canvas Tax Aware Long Short
- Parametric (Morgan Stanley) Custom Extension