Mutual fund and ETF industry AUM boomed last year, thanks largely to market gains. Yet net inflows also more than doubled.

Mortimer J. "Tim" Buckley Vanguard President, CEO

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on open-end mutual fund ETF and ETF flows and AUM, excluding money market funds and funds of funds, from 2019.

Vanguard added an estimated $1.12 trillion in mutual fund and ETF AUM last year, more than any other fund firm and up from a $113.851 billion AUM drop in 2018. Other big 2019 AUM winners included: BlackRock, up $432 billion (up from a $2.932 billion drop); Fidelity, up $415 billion (up from a $50.69 billion drop); Capital Group, up $329 billion (up from an $84.806 billion drop); and SSgA, up $149 billion (up from a $53.601 billion drop).

Vanguard also won last year by change in market share (percentage of total industry AUM). The low-cost leviathan saw its market share increase 0.82 percent in 2019 (to 25.7 percent), more than any other fund firm but down from a 0.99 percent in 2018. Other big market share winners in 2019 included: Fidelity, up 0.46 percent (up from a 0.27 percent increase); BlackRock, up 0.35 percent (down from a 0.6 percent increase); Charles Schwab, up 0.14 percent (down from a 0.15 percent increase); and MFS, up 0.09 percent (up from a 0.02 percent increase).

On the flip side, AQR suffered the biggest mutual fund and ETF AUM drop in the industry: $3 billion (down from a $12.5 billion drop in 2018). Other big 2019 AUM sufferers included: Robeco's Boston Partners, down $2 billion (down from a $3.171 billion drop); AIG, down $1 billion (down from a $4.892 billion drop); IVA, down $1 billion (down from a $3.207 billion drop); and AMG, down $1 billion (down from an $8.512 billion drop).

Proportionately, the biggest market share sufferers in 2019 were: Franklin Templeton, down 0.26 percent (up from a 0.17 percent drop in 2018); Pimco, down 0.17 percent (down from a 0.11 percent increase); Invesco, down 0.15 percent (up from a 0.1 percent drop); Dodge & Cox, down 0.08 percent (down from a 0.09 percent drop); and John Hancock, down 0.07 percent (negligible change).

Across the entire industry, long-term mutual funds and ETFs gained an estimated $3.864 trillion in AUM last year, ending the year at $20.734 trillion. (Meanwhile, the S&P 500 rose 28.88 percent last year.) Of 773 firms tracked by the M* team, only 155 (about 20 percent) saw their AUM fall in 2019. The industry brought in an estimated $419.3 billion in net inflows in 2019 (up from $162.401 billion in 2018), with net inflows accounting for 10.85 percent of the industry's AUM gains. 

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