Industry inflows evaporated last month, and none of the titans were immune. Even index funds took a big flows hit.

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data for April 2022 mutual fund and ETF flows, excluding money-market funds and funds of funds. (Other asset management prodcuts, like collective trusts and SMAs, are also not included.***) More specifically, this article focuses on the eight firms with more than $500 billion each in long-term fund and ETF AUM (down from nine in March 2022).

Jumbo fund firms had $16.346 trillion in long-term fund AUM as of April 30, 2022, and they accounted for 66.49 percent of overall industry long-term AUM. That compares with $18.145 trillion and 68.57 percent on March 31, 2022.

None of those jumbo firms brought in net inflows in April 2022, down from five in March.

Vanguard led the jumbo fund firm pack in the first four months of 2022, thanks to an estimated $43.976 billion in net inflows year-to-date as of April 30. Other big YTD inflows winners included: Fidelity, $21.871 billion; and BlackRock (including iShares), $21.867 billion.

On the flip side, BlackRock led the jumbo fund firm outflows pack last month, thanks to an estimated $12.123 billion in net April 2022 outflows, down month-over-month from $24.331 billion in March 2022 inflows and down year-over-year from $19.534 billion in April 2021 inflows. Other big April 2022 outflows sufferers included: SSGA, $11.151 billion (down M/M from $16.704 billion in net inflows, down Y/Y from $7.015 billion in net inflows); and Vanguard, $7.582 billion (down M/M from $13.29 billion in net inflows, down Y/Y from $44.494 billion in net inflows).

T. Rowe Price led the jumbo fund firm outflows pack after the first four months of 2022, thanks to an estimated $14.954 billion in net YTD outflows. The only other jumbo outflows sufferers were: Capital Group's American Funds, $1.374 billion; and SSGA, $539 million.

As a group, the eight largest fund firms suffered an estimated $44.067 billion in net April 2022 outflows, equivalent to 0.27 percent of their combined AUM and accounting for 49.39 percent of overall industry outflows. That's down M/M from $62.629 billion in March 2022 inflows, equivalent to 0.35 percent of their AUM and accounting for 204.32 percent of industry inflows.

After the first four months of 2022, jumbo fund firms had brought in $77.74 billion in net YTD inflows, equivalent to 0.48 percent of their combined AUM.

Across the entire industry, the 796 firms tracked by the M* team (up M/M from 791 and up Y/Y from 760) suffered an estimated $89.224 billion in net April 2022 outflows, equivlalent to 0.36 percent of the industry's $24.585 trillion in long-term fund AUM . (320 firms brought in net inflows.) That's down M/M from $30.653 billion in net March 2022 inflows, equivalent to 0.12 percent of industry AUM of $26.461 trillion, and down Y/Y from $125.673 billion in net April 2021 inflows, equivalent to 0.49 percent of industry AUM of $25.801 trillion.

Active funds suffered an estimated $86.386 billion in net April 2022 outflows, up M/M from $70.411 billion but down Y/Y from $31.465 billion in net inflows. Passive funds suffered an estimated $2.838 billion in net April 2022 outflows, down M/M from $101.064 billion in net inflows and down Y/Y from $94.208 billion in net inflows.

After the first four months of 2022, the industry had suffered $2.676 billion in net YTD outflows, equivalent to 0.01 percent of industry long-term AUM. 410 firms have brought in net inflows YTD.

***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 April 2022 their clients transferred about $1.7 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. 

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