As industry inflows rebounded last month, the largest fund firms saw their collective AUM rise by $842 billion (mostly thanks to market appreciation).

Laurence D. "Larry" Fink BlackRock Chairman, CEO

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data for October 2021 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 $18.86 trillion in long-term fund AUM as of October 31, 2021, and they accounted for 67.85 percent of overall industry long-term AUM; that's up from $18.018 trillion and 67.65 percent in September. Seven of those jumbo firms brought in net long-term fund inflows in October 2021, up from five in September.

BlackRock (including iShares) took the lead last month in the jumbo pack, thanks to an estimated $22.539 billion in net October 2021 long-term fund inflows, up month-over-month from $10.727 billion in September 2021 and up year-over-year from $10.063 billion in October 2020. Other big October 2021 inflows winners included: Vanguard, $19.685 billion (down M/M from $19.822 billion, up Y/Y from $12.822 billion); and SSGA, $11.788 billion (up M/M from $2.355 billion in net outflows, up Y/Y from $6.978 billion in net outflows).

Yet Vanguard kept the year-to-date jumbo inflows lead as of October 31, 2021, thanks to an estimated $328.075 billion in net YTD inflows. Other big inflows winners included: BlackRock, $178.841 billion; and Fidelity, $111.013 billion.

The same trio also led the jumbo inflows pack for the 12-months ending October 31, 2021; Vanguard with $372.871 billion, BlackRock with $227.16 billion; and Fidelity with $136.174 billion.

On the flip side, T. Rowe Price kept the jumbo fund firm outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $3.169 billion in net October 2021 outflows, down M/M from $3.411 billion in September 2021 and down Y/Y from $3.219 billion in October 2020. The only other October 2021 outflows sufferer was Franklin Templeton with $1.078 billion (up M/M from $1.054 billion, down Y/Y from $2.707 billion).

The same two firms were the only jumbo net outflows sufferers for the YTD after the first 10 months of 2021 and for the 12-month period ending October 31, 2021. T. Rowe suffered $23.577 billion in net YTD outflows and $27.352 billion in net 12-month outflows, while Franklin suffered $11.259 billion in YTD outflows and $13.286 billion in 12-month outflows.

As a group, the nine largest fund firms brought in an estimated $68.585 billion in net inflows in October 2021, equivalent to about 0.36 percent of their combined AUM and accounting for 81.78 percent of overall industry long-term inflows. That's up from 434.511 billion, 0.19 percent of AUM, and 60.47 percent of industry inflows in September 2021.

Jumbo fund firms brought $751.738 billion in net 2021 long-term fund inflows as of October 31, 2021, equivalent to 3.99 percent of their combined AUM and accounting for 72.15 percent of industry inflows. And for the 12 months ending October 31, 2021, jumbo fund firms brought in $907.211 billion in net inflows, equivalent to 4.81 percent of their AUM and accounting for 72.26 percent industry inflows.

Across the entire industry, the 781 firms (up from 777 in September 2021 and 756 in October 2020) tracked by the M* team brought in a combined $83.86 4billion in net long-term inflows in October 2021, equivalent to 0.3 percent of industry long-term AUM of $27.795 trillion. That's up from $57.068 billion in inflows and $26.634 trillion in September 2021 and with $13.432 billion in inflows and $20.853 trillion in AUM in October 2021.

Active funds brought in an estimated $5.324 billion in October 2021 inflows, down M/M from $9.916 billion but up Y/Y from $6.934 billion in net outflows. Passive funds brought in $78.71 billion in October inflows, up M/M from $47.828 billion and up Y/UY from $20.374 billion.

In the first ten months of 2021, long-term funds brought in $1.041921 trillion in net inflows, equivalent to 3.75 percent of their combined AUM. And in the 12 months ending October 31, 2021, long-term funds brought in $1.255539 trillion in net inflows, equivalent to 4.52 percent of their AUM.

*** 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 October 2021 their clients transferred about $3.1 billion out of T. Rowe mutual funds and into other T. Rowe products like CITs and SMAs. (T. Rowe clients made $21.5 billion of such transfers in the first nine months of 2021.) 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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