Industry inflows quintupled last year, with three quarters of those inflows going to the very biggest firms.

Mortimer J. "Tim" Buckley Vanguard Chairman, CEO

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data for December 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 nine firms with more than $500 billion each in long-term fund and ETF AUM.

Jumbo fund firms had $19.138 trillion in long-term fund AUM as of December 31, 2021, and they accounted for 68.15 percent of overall industry long-term AUM; that compares with $18.608 billion and 68.19 percent on November 30, 2021. Six of those jumbo firms brought in net long-term fund flows in December 2021, down from seven in November 2021. (Seven jumbo firms brought in net inflows for 2021 overall.)

Vanguard kept the lead last year, bringing in an estimated $361.882 billion in net 2021 inflows, up from $140.622 billion in 2020. Other big 2021 inflows winners included: BlackRock (including iShares), $240.541 billion (up from $138.413 billion); and Fidelity, $130.889 billion (up from $9.874 billion).

BlackRock led the flows race in the fourth quarter, with estimated net Q4 2021 inflows of $84.239 billion. Other big Q4 inflows winners included: Vanguard, $53.492 billion; and SSGA, $49.28 billion.

SSGA took the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $31.752 billion in net December 2021 long-term fund inflows, up month-over-month from $5.74 billion in November 2021 and up year-over-year from $196 million in December 2020. Other big December 2021 inflows winners included: BlackRock, $31.372 billion (up M/M from $30.69 billion, up Y/Y from $15.227 billion); and Fidelity, $16.163 billion (up M/M from $1.359 billion, up Y/Y from $13.137 billion).

On the flip side, only two jumbo fund firms suffered net outflows for 2021. T. Rowe Price suffered $31.083 billion in net 2021 outflows, down from $33.268 billion in 2020. And Franklin Templeton suffered $15.881 billion in net 2021 outflows, down from $25.182 billion in 2020.

T. Rowe also led the jumbo fund firm outflows pack last quarter, thanks to an estimated $10.674 billion in net Q4 outflows. Other big Q4 2021 outflows sufferers included: Franklin, $5.7 billion; and Capital Group's American Funds, $812 million.

And T. Rowe also kept the jumbo fund firm outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $3.446 billion in net December 2021 outflows, down M/M from $4.06 billion in November 2021 but up Y/Y from $2.189 billion in December 2020. Other big December 2021 outflows sufferers included: American Funds, $3.109 billion (down M/M from $1.202 billion in net inflows, down Y/Y from $3.834 billion); and Franklin, $2.722 billion (up M/M from $811 million, up Y/Y from $1.167 billion).

As a group, the nine largest fund firms brought in an estimated $906.612 billion in net inflows in 2021, equivalent to 4.47 percent of their combined AUM and accounting for 74.74 percent of overall industry long-term inflows.

In Q4 2021, jumbo fund firms brought in $223.496 billion in net inflows, equivalent to 1.17 percent of their AUM and accounting for 89.35 percent of industry inflows.

In December 2021, jumbo fund firms brought in $86.688 billion in net long-term fund inflows, equivalent to 0.45 percent of their combined AUM and accounting for 98.92 percent of overall industry inflows. That compares with $67.301 billion, 0.36 percent of AUM, and 83.13 percent of industry inflows in November 2021.

Across the entire industry, the 799 fund firms tracked by the M* team (up from 781 in November 2021 and up from 751 in December 2020) brought in an estimated $1.21309 trillion in net 2021 inflows, equivalent to 4.33 percent of overall long-term fund AUM of $28.084 trillion on December 31, 2021. That's up from $220.218 billion and 0.92 percent of AUM in 2020.

In Q4 2021, the overall industry brought in $250.128 billion in net long-term fund inflows, equivalent to 0.89 percent overall long-term fund AUM.

In December 2021 alone, the overall industry brought in $87.633 billion in net long-term fund inflows, equivalent to 0.31 percent of long-term fund AUM. That's up from $80.955 billion and 0.3 percent in November 2021, but it's down from $96.953 billion and 0.41 percent in December 2020.

Passive funds brought in $95.932 billion in net long-term fund inflows in December 2021, up from $83.006 billion in November 2021 and up from $59.958 billion in December 2020. On the flip side, active funds suffered $8.299 billion in December 2021 outflows, up from $2.051 billion in November 2021 and down from $36.995 billion in December 2020 inflows.

***This caveat is particularly important for jumbo fund firms, many of which are big players in the 401(k) business, where collective investment trusts (CITs) are a commonly used alternative to traditional mutual funds. For example, as the T. Rowe team revealed last week, in December 2021 their clients transferred about $1.2 billion out of T. Rowe mutual funds and into other T. Rowe products like CITs and SMAs. (T. Rowe clients made $23.8 billion of such transfers in all of 2021.) And T. Rowe is a big retirement plan provider and DC I-O asset manager, especially in the target-date fund (TDF) space. 

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