Industry inflows fell 36 percent last month, despite a 21-percent inflows increase among the biggest fund firms.

Mortimer J. "Tim" Buckley Vanguard Chairman, CEO

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data for March 2022 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 $18.145 trillion in long-term fund AUM as of March 31, 2022, and they accounted for 68.57 percent of overall industry long-term AUM. That compares with $17.882 trillion and 68.2 percent on February 28, 2022.

Five of those jumbo firms brought in net inflows in March 2022, the same number as in February 2022.

Vanguard led the jumbo fund firm pack last quarter, thanks to an estimated $79.398 billion in Q1 2022 inflows. Other big Q1 2022 inflows winners included: BlackRock (including iShares), $33.989 billion; and Fidelity, $22.896 billion.

Yet BlackRock regained the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $24.331 billion in net March 2022 inflows, up month-over-month from $13.557 billion in February 2022 and down year-over-year from $25.574 billion in March 2021. Other big March 2022 inflows winners included: SSGA, $16.704 billion (up M/M from $7.752 billion, down Y/Y from $17.892 billion); and Vanguard, $13.29 billion (down M/M from $28.142 billion, down Y/Y from $42.151 billion).

On the flip side, T. Rowe Price led the jumbo fund firm outflows pack last quarter, thanks to an estimated $10.514 billion in net Q1 2022 outflows. The only other Q1 2022 jumbo outflows sufferer was Franklin Templeton, $8.572 billion.

Franklin took the jumbo fund firm outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $3.416 billion in net March 2022 outflows, down M/M from $2.662 billion in February 2022 and up Y/Y from $1.067 billion in March 2021. Other big March 2022 outflows sufferers included: T. Rowe, $2.749 billion (down M/M from $3.367 billion, up Y/Y from $2.392 billion); and J.P. Morgan (including Six Circles), $738 million (down M/M from $2.489 billion in net inflows, down Y/Y from $7.138 billion in net inflows).

As a group, the nine largest fund firms brought in an estimated $141.705 billion in net long-term fund inflows in Q1 2022. That's equivalent to 0.78 percent of their combined $18.145 trillion in AUM (up M/M from $17.882 trillion) and accounted for 123.87 percent of overall industry inflows.

Jumbo fund firms brought in $62.629 billion in net March 2022 inflows, equivalent to 0.35 percent of their combined AUM and accountign for 204.32 percent of overall industry inflows. That's up from $51.583 billion, 0.29 percent of AUM, and 107.8 percent of industry inflows.

Across the entire industry, the 791 firms tracked by the M* team (down M/M from 795 but up Y/Y from 758) brought in an estimated $114.402 billion in net Q1 2022 inflows. That's equivalent to 0.43 percent of their $26.461 trillion in combined AUM (up M/M from $26.219 trillion, up Y/Y from $24.865 trillion).

Long-term funds brought in an estimated $30.653 billion in net inflows in March 2022, equivalent to 0.12 percent of their combined AUM. That's down M/M from $47.85 billion and 0.18 percent of AUM, and down Y/Y from $156.503 billion and 0.63 percent of AUM.

Passive funds brought in an estimated $101.064 billion in net long-term fund inflows in March 2022, up M/M from $80.09 billion but down Y/Y from $114.117 billion. Active funds suffered $70.411 billion in net outflows in March 2022, up M/M from $32.24 billion but down Y/Y from $42.386 billion in net inflows.

***This caveat is particularly important for jumbo fund firms, many of which are big players in the 401(k) business, where collective investment tursts (CITs) are a commonly used alternative to traditional mutual funds. For example, as the T. Rowe team revealed yesterday, in March 2022 their clients transferred about $500 million 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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