Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA), DoubleLine, and Vanguard dominated mutual fund flows last month as the markets shook. Meanwhile, 37 of the 50 biggest mutual fund shops suffered net ouflows.

David Booth Dimensional Fund Advisors Chairman, Co-Chief Executive Officer

On Friday Morningstar released its January 2016 "Morningstar Direct U.S. Asset Flows Update" by senior analyst Alina Lamy. Per M*'s estimates, Vanguard ($21.923 billion in net inflows), DFA ($3.269 billion), and DoubleLine ($1.848 billion) were the only fund firms that netted more than $1 billion in open-end (including ETFs), long-term (i.e. non-money-market) net inflows in January. Rounding out the top five firms in net flows were Capital Group's American Funds ($975 million in net inflows) and TIAA-CREF ($441 billion, including Nuveen).

Percentage-wise, the same three firms dominated. M* estimates put DoubleLine's net January inflows at 2.68 percent of its AUM, DFA's at 1.33 percent, and Vanguard's at 0.782 percent. TIAA-CREF came in fourth, netting inflows equivalent to 0.584 percent of AUM, and SEI came in fifth with net inflows of 0.424 percent of AUM.

On the flip side, the top five long-term, open-end mutual fund (including ETFs) outflow sufferers in January were: Fidelity, $5.324 billion in net outflows; Franklin Templeton, $4.038 billion; BlackRock, $2.311 billion; Invesco (including PowerShares), $2.127 billion; and Pimco, $1.678 billion.

In percentage terms, January's top outflow sufferers were: Goldman Sachs, outflows equivalent to 1.92 percent of its AUM; Natixis, 1.82 percent; New York Life's MainStay, 1.65 percent; Putnam, 1.34 percent; and Wells Fargo, 1.32 percent.

Across the whole universe of funds, Morningstar estimates that long-term, open-end mutual funds and ETFs suffered combined net outflows of $30.908 billion. Money market funds suffered $21.402 billion in net outflows, while long-term passive funds netted $18.462 billion in net inflows.

In active open-end mutual funds and ETFs, Morningstar estimates that municipal bond funds brought in $4.495 billion in net inflows. Active international equity funds brought in $4.108 billion in net inflows, active alternative funds brought in $1.529 billion, and active commodities funds brought in $657 million.

Active U.S. equity funds, meanwhile, suffered $19.167 billion in net ouflows. $11.982 billion net flowed out of active taxable bond funds, $7.18 billion out of active allocation funds, and $3.367 billion out of active sector equity funds. Even passive sector equity and passive allocation funds saw net outflows last month, of $4.224 billion and $211 million each, respectively. 

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