Back in 2007, Australian corporate bonds were yielding eight per cent p.a. while 10-year government bonds were delivering a solid six per cent p.a. These rates enabled financial advisers to recommend fixed income portfolios that generated adequate and consistent income for their clients. Fast forward to 2015 and the yields on both have more than halved.

Over the past eight years, a very disconcerting market environment has emerged where interest rates are lower than inflation and various asset classes are delivering their lowest yield levels in recent history.

One of the largest investment managers in the world, BlackRock, has come up with a solution to combat this investor dilemma: a suite of exchange traded funds that can be used to build tailored income portfolios. In this article, BlackRock explains its four-step process and the key benefits of using both fixed income and equity ETFs.