Though WisdomTree [profile] had a great 2015, its December was anything but. And Vanguard [profile] and BlackRock [profile] continued to dominate, for both last month and last year.

Frederick McNabb III The Vanguard Group, Inc. Chief Executive Officer, Chairman, President

On Friday Morningstar markets research senior analyst Alina Lamy issued the Chicago-based mutual fund watcher's latest estimated U.S. mutual fund asset flows report, covering both December 2015 and the full year.

In absolute dollars, Vanguard came out on top with a whopping $230.396 billion in net open-end mutual fund and ETF inflows for 2015. The other top five winners for 2015 were: BlackRock ($108.02 billion), DFA [profile] ($21.583 billion), TCW's [profile] MetWest ($18.739 billion), and WisdomTree ($16.837 billion).

In percentage terms, WisdomTree had the best inflows of the big fund firms, bringing in inflows for 2015 that amounted to 32.4 percent of its $52 billion in AUM (as of December 31, 2015). The other big winners in percentage terms were: TCW (24 percent, $78 billion in AUM), DoubleLine [profile] (22.6 percent, $62 billion in AUM), BlackRock (10.3 percent, $1.044 trillion in AUM), and DFA (8.4 percent, $257 billion in AUM).

Allianz's Pimco [profile] suffered more outflows, $87.418 billion, than any other fund firm in 2015. The other big bleeders for the year included: Franklin Templeton [profile] ($30.7 billion), SSgA [profile] ($23.948 billion), Columbia Threadneedle [profile] ($13.6 billion), and OppenheimerFunds [profile] ($12.92 billion).

The biggest sufferers in 2015 on a percentage basis were: Pimco (29.3 percent, compared to $298 billion in AUM on December 31, 2015), Waddell & Reed's Ivy Funds [profile] (20.1 percent, $52 billion in AUM), New York Life's MainStay [profile] (18.2 percent, $62 billion in AUM), GMO [profile] (12.4 percent, $65 billion in AUM), and Goldman Sachs [profile] (10.3 percent, $87 billion in AUM).

Yet December looked a bit different than the overall year. Vanguard ($23.848 billion in net inflows for the month) and BlackRock ($16.892 billion) still came out on top, but different names rounded out the top five for the last month of 2015: SSgA ($7.893 billion in December 2015 inflows), John Hancock [profile] ($2.224 billion), and TIAA-CREF [profile] ($1.734 billion, including Nuveen [profile]).

In percentage terms, Hancock crushed it in December, bringing in net inflows amounting to 1.81 percent of its $123 billion in AUM as of December 31, 2015. The other big percentage winners were: DoubleLine (1.67 percent, $62 billion in December 31, 2015 AUM), BlackRock (1.62 percent, $1.044 trillion in AUM), Charles Schwab [profile] (1.22 percent, $57 billion in AUM), and TIAA-CREF (1.16 percent, $149 billion in AUM).

On the outflows side, Pimco still bled the most for the month, $9.312 billion. (Pimco previously told reporters that its flagship Total Return Fund swung to net inflows last month, though the publications note that that depends on counting reinvested capital gains and dividends as net inflows.) The other big sufferers in December were: Franklin ($5.952B), WisdomTree ($3.152B), Capital Group's American Funds [profile] ($2.898 billion), and Dodge & Cox [profile] ($2.52 billion).

Though WisdomTree came out on top proportionately for the full year, in December it suffered the most, with outflows amounting to 6.06 percent of its $52 billion in AUM on December 31, 2015. The other top outflow sufferers last month, percentage-wise, were Ivy (3.7 percent, $52 billion in December 31, 2015 AUM), Pimco (3.15 percent, $296 billion in AUM), MainStay (2.81 percent, $62 billion in AUM), and BNY Mellon's Dreyfus [profile] (2.48 percent, $56 billion in AUM).

Overall active, long-term, open-end mutual funds and ETFs suffered $206.681 billion in net outflows in 2015. Passive funds brought in $412.822 billion in net inflows for the year, and money market funds brought in $43.453 billion in net inflows.

Active U.S. equity funds got hit the hardest last year overall, suffering $169.053 million in net outflows for 2015. Active funds that specialize in taxable bonds ($71.148 billion), asset allocation ($24.257 billion), and commodities ($2.09 billion) all suffered net outflows last year. On the flip side, net inflows went into active international equity ($28.53 billion), muni bond ($16.02 billion), alternative ($9.727 billion), and sector equity ($5.589 billion).

In December alone, active long-term, open-end mutual funds and ETFs suffered $66.875 billion in net outflows. Passive funds brought in $51.345 billion in net inflows for the month, while money market funds brought in $38.55 billion net.

Active, taxable bond funds suffered the biggest net outflows last month, $35.091 billion in total. Among active long-term funds, the only category net inflows in December was muni bond funds ($5.79 billion). December outflows for other active fund categories came in at: $14.426 billion for U.S. equity, $10.683 billion for international equity, $9.85 billion for allocation, $1.727 billion for sector equity, $513 million for commodities, and $375 million for alternative. 

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