As fund flows slipped last month, giants and index funds increased their market share.

Mortimer J. Buckley Vanguard President, CEO

The information within this article draws from Morningstar Direct data on March 2019 mutual fund and ETF flows (excluding money market funds and funds of funds). This article focuses specifically on the 27 firms with more than $100 billion each in mutual fund and ETF AUM. 14 of those firms gained net inflows in March, while 13 suffered outflows.

For three months and counting, Vanguard led the pack with an estimated $21.813 billion in net March inflows, up from $20.548 billion in February. Other big March winners included: BlackRock, $12.933 billion (up from $8.586 billion); Fidelity, $.6437 billion (down from $9.472 billion); Capital Group's American Funds, $1.985 billion (down from $3.273 billion); and Charles Schwab, $1.746 billion (down from $2.442 billion).

Proportionately, John Hancock took the lead among the biggest fund firms, thanks to estimated March net inflows equivalent to 1.33 percent of its AUM, up from 1.24 percent in net outflows in February. Other big March winners included: PGIM, 1.27 percent (up from 0.19 percent); Lord Abbett, 1.21 percent (down from 1.28 percent); Charles Schwab, 0.79 percent (down from 1.29 percent); and BlackRock, 0.73 percent (up from 0.49 percent).

On the flip side, March was a rough month for T. Rowe Price, which suffered an estimated $2.858 billion net outflows, more than any other large fund firm and down from $1.509 billion in February inflows. Other big March outflows sufferers included: Janus Henderson, $2.08 billion (up from $223 million); Franklin Templeton, $1.742 billion (up from $1.204 billion); American Century, $1.514 billion (up from $421 million); and Invesco, $1.082 billion (down from $1.321 billion).

Janus led the large fund outflows pack proportionately last month, with estimated net March outflows equivalent to 1.51 percent of its AUM, up from 0.16 percent in February. Other big March outflows sufferers included: American Century, 1.44 percent (up from 0.4 percent); Axa, 0.53 percent (up from 0.46 percent); Franklin, 0.5 percent (up from 0.34 percent); and T. Rowe, 0.46 percent (down from 0.25 percent in net inflows).

As a group, the 27 firms with more than $100 billion each in mutual fund and ETF AUM brought in an estimated $43.119 billion in net inflows (accounting for 97.57 percent of net industry inflows), equivalent to 0.28 percent of their combined AUM. That's down from $49.779 billion in February.

Across the entire industry (M* tracks flows for 779 firms), long-term mutual funds and ETFs brought in a combined $44.191 billion in estimated net March inflows, equivalent to 0.24 percent of their combined AUM (down from $53.664 billion in February). Passive funds brought in $49.46 billion in net March inflows, up from $42.184 billion in February, while active funds suffered $5.269 billion in net March outflows, down from $11.48 billion in net inflows in February. 

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