Industry inflows fell nearly 90 percent in a month, as AUM slipped nearly five percent. Yet assets are still up nearly 13 percent over the past 12 months.

Abigail "Abby" Pierrepont Johnson FMR (dba Fidelity Investments) Chair, President, CEO

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data for January 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 $18.223 trillion in long-term fund AUM as of January 31, 2022, and they accounted for 68.23 percent of overall industry long-term AUM; that compares with $19.138 trillion and 68.15 percent on December 31, 2021. Four of those jumbo firms brought in net long-term fund inflows in January 2022, down from six in December 2021.

Fidelity took the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $11.018 billion in net January 2022 long-term fund inflows, down month-over-month from $16.136 billion in December 2021 but up year-over-year from $8.055 billion in January 2021. Other big January 2022 inflows winners included: Vanguard, $9.967 billion (up M/M from $4.518 billion, down Y/Y from $37.557 billion); and Capital Group's American Funds, $3.762 billion (up M/M from $3.109 billion in net outflows, up Y/Y from $1.444 billion).

On the flip side, SSGA took the jumbo fund firm outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $13.843 billion in net January 2022 outflows, down M/M from $31.752 billion in December 2021 inflows but up Y/Y from $4.957 billion in January 2021 outflows. Other big January 2022 outflows sufferers included: T. Rowe Price, $4.403 billion (up M/M from $3.446 billion, up Y/Y from $4.367 billion); and BlackRock (including iShares), $3.902 billion (down M/M from $31.372 billion in net inflows, down Y/Y from $9.306 billion in net inflows).

As a group, the nine largest fund firms suffered an estimated $1.071 billion in net long-term fund outflows in January 2022, equivalent to 0.01 percent of their combined AUM. That compares with $86.688 billion in net inflows and 0.45 percent of AUM in December 2021.

Across the entire industry, the 797 firms tracked by the M* team (down M/M from 799 but up Y/Y from 753) brought in an estimated $8.936 billion in net January 2022 inflows, equivalent to 0.03 percent of overall long-term fund AUM of $26.709 trillion on January 31, 2022. That's down M/M from $87.633 billions in December 2021 inflows, equivalent to 0.31 percent of $28.084 trillion in AUM and down Y/Y from $95.454 billion in January 2021 inflows, equivalent to 0.4 percent of $23.732 trillion in AUM.

Passive funds brought in $22.087 billion in net long-term fund inflows in January 2022, down M/M from $95.932 billion and down Y/Y from $54.591 billion. Active funds suffered $13.138 billion in net long-term fund outflows in January 2022, up M/M from $8.299 billion but down Y/Y from $40.836 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 trusts (CITs) are a commonly used alternative to traditional mutual funds. For examples, as the T. Rowe team revealed last week, in January 2022 their clients transferred about $2.2 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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