Inflows into long-term mutual funds and ETFs fell by about 19 percent last month, though they've still increased about eight-fold year-over-year.

Mortimer J. "Tim" Buckley Vanguard President, CEO

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data for April 2021 mutual fund and ETF flows, excluding money market funds and funds of funds. (Other asset management products, like collective trusts and SMAs, are also not included.***) More specifically, this article focuses on the 33 firms (up from 32 in March 2021 and 26 in April 2020) with more than $100 billion each in long-term fund AUM.

Large fund firms accounted for 86.55 percent of long-term fund AUM as of April 30, 2021, up from 85.91 percent on March 31, 2021 and 82.7 percent on April 30, 2020. 27 large fund firms brought in net long-term fund inflows in April 2021, up from 22 in March 2021 and 11 in April 2020.

Vanguard kept the lead last month, bringing in an estimated $44.494 billion in net April 2021 inflows, up month-over-month from $42.151 billion in March 2021 and up year-over-year from $347 million in April 2020. Other big April 2021 inflows winners included: BlackRock, $19.534 billion (down MOM from $25.574 billion, up YOY from $12.323 billion); SSGA, $7.015 billion (down MOM from $17.892 billion, down YOY from $15.846 billion); Fidelity, $5.847 billion (down MOM from $20.498 billion, up YOY from $51 million in net outflows); and J.P. Morgan (including Six Circles), $5.48 billion (down MOM from $7.138 billion, up YOY from $1.887 billion).

Proportionately among the biggest fund firms, First Trust took the lead last month, thanks to estimated April 2021 inflows equivalent to 2 percent of its AUM. Other big inflows winners included: Jackson, 1.6 percent; Charles Schwab, 1.5 percent; J.P. Morgan, 1 percent; and Lord Abbett, 0.9 percent.

Vanguard also led the large fund firm inflows pack in the first four months of 2021, thanks to an estimated $163.18 billion in net YTD inflows as of April 30, 2021. Other big YTD inflows winners included: BlackRock, $75.696 billion; and Fidelity, $54.195 billion.

On the flip side, last month was a rough one for T. Rowe Price's mutual funds, which led the large fund firm outflows pack thanks to an estimated $1.396 billion in net April 2021 outflows, down MOM from $2.392 billion and down YOY from $2.39 billion. Other big April 2021 outflows sufferers included: DFA, $844 million (down MOM from $3.125 billion, down YOY from $3.149 billion); SEI, $767 million (up MOM from $505 million, up YOY from $449 million); Macquarie (including Delaware and the freshly acquired Ivy), $500 million (down MOM from $116 million in net inflows, down YOY from $667 million); and Victory, $413 million (down MOM from $70 million in net inflows, down YOY from $697 million).

Proportionately among the biggest fund firms, SEI suffered the most last month, thanks to estimated net April 2021 outflows equivalent to 0.6 percent of its AUM. Other big outflows sufferers included: Macquarie, 0.4 percent; Victory, 0.3 percent; DFA, 0.2 percent; and T. Rowe, 0.2 percent.

DFA led the outflows pack in the first four months of 2021, thanks to an estimated $8.642 billion net YTD outflows as of April 30, 2021. Other big YTD outflows sufferers included: T. Rowe, $6.257 billion; and Franklin Templeton, $4.884 billion.

As a group, the 33 largest fund firms brought in an estimated $113.01 billion in net inflows in April 2021, equivalent to 0.51 percent of their combined AUM and accounting for 88.63 percent of overall industry inflows. That's down from $137.458 billion and 0.64 percent of AUM, but up from 87.83 percent of industry inflows, in March 2021. And that's up from $18.938 billion, 0.12 percent of AUM, and 115.57 percent of industry inflows in April 2020.

In the first four months of 2021, the largest fund firms brought in an estimated $439.994 billion in net inflows, equivalent to 1.97 percent of their combined AUM and accounting for 82.03 percent of overall industry inflows.

Across the entire industry, the 760 fund firms (up from 758 in March 2021 but down from 763 in April 2020) tracked by the M* team brought in a combined $125.673 billion in estimated net long-term fund inflows in April 2021, equivalent to 0.49 percent of long-term fund AUM. That's down from $156.503 billion and 0.63 percent of AUM in March 20210, but it's up from $16.388 billion and 0.09 percent of AUM in April 2020.

Active funds brought in an estimated $31.465 billion in net April 2021 inflows, down from $42.386 billion in March 2021 but up from $21.202 billion in April 2020 outflows. Passive funds brought in an estimated $94.208 billion in net April 2021 inflows, down from $114.117 billion in March 2021 but up from $37.598 billion in April 2020.

In the first four months of 2021, long-term funds brought in an estimated $528.439 billion in net inflows, equivalent to 2.05 percent of their combined AUM.

*** This caveat is particularly important for these large fund firms, many of which are big players in the defined contribution retirement plan business, where CITs are a commonly used alternative to traditional mutual funds. For example, as the T. Rowe team revealed earlier this week, in April 2021 their clients transferred about $5.9 billion out of T. Rowe mutual funds and into other T. Rowe products, like CITs and SMAs. And T. Rowe is a big retirement plan provider and DC I-O asset manager, especially in the target-date fund (TDF) space.

Editor's Note: A prior version of this story accidentally counted a subsidiary's numbers both as part of its parent and as a separate firm. This led the overall industry flows numbers to be office. The final three paragraphs have now been updated accordingly. 

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