The world's largest asset manager regained the inflows lead among titans last month, even as the group's outflows nearly evaporated.

Laurence D. "Larry" Fink BlackRock Chairman, CEO

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data for March 2023 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 eight firms (down year-over-year from nine in March 2022) with more than $500 billion each in total long-term fund and ETF AUM.

Jumbo fund firms held $16.29 trillion in total long-term fund AUM across 7,792 funds as of March 31, 2023, and they accounted for 67.97 percent of overall industry long-term fund AUM. That compares with $15.937 trillion, 7,788 funds, and 67.84 percent of industry AUM on February 28, 2023, and with $18.145 trillion and 68.57 percent of industry AUM on March 31, 2022.

Four of those jumbo fund firms brought in net inflows in March 2023. That's up month-over-month from three in February 2023 but down Y/Y from five in March 2022.

Vanguard led the way in the first quarter of 2023, thanks to an estimated $31.871 billion in net Q1 2023 inflows. The other jumbo inflows winners included: J.P. Morgan (including Six Circles), $24.49 billion; and Fidelity, $379 million.

Yet BlackRock (including iShares) took the lead last month, bringing in an estimated $6.682 billion in net March 2023 inflows, up M/M from $18.667 billion in February 2023 outflows and down Y/Y from $24.331 billion in March 2022 inflows. Other big March 2023 inflows winners included: J.P. Morgan, $4.447 billion (down M/M from $9.308 billion, up Y/Y from $738 million); and Fidelity, $781 million (up M/M from $1.086 billion in net outflows, down Y/Y from $5.081 billion in net inflows).

On the flip side, T. Rowe Price led the outflows pack in the first quarter, thanks to an estimated $14.158 billion in net Q1 2023 outflows. Other big outflows sufferers included: SSGA, $9.381 billion; and Capital Group (including American Funds), $7.312 billion.

T. Rowe also took the outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $4.993 billion in March 2023 outflows, up M/M from $3.151 billion in February 2023 and up Y/Y from $2.749 billion in March 2022. Other big March 2023 outflows sufferers included: Cap Group, $4.655 billion (up M/M from $48 million, up Y/Y from $496 million); and Invesco, $2.562 billion (down M/M from $794 million in net inflows, down Y/Y from $10.622 billion in net inflows).

As a group, the eight largest fund firms brought in $14.611 billion in net Q1 2023 inflows. That's equivalent to 0.9 percent of their combined AUM and accounting for 96.33 percent of overall industry inflows.

In March 2023, jumbo fund firms suffered $652 million in net outflows, equivalent to 2.55 percent of overall industry outflows. That compares with $11.471 billion and 353.5 percent of industry outflows in February 2023, and with $62.629 billion in net inflows and 204.32 percent of industry inflows in March 2022.

Across the entire industry, the 785 firms tracked by the M* team (up M/M from 782 but down Y/Y from 791) brought in an estimated $15.168 billion in net inflows in Q1 2023. That's equivalent to 0.06 percent of their combined $23.968 trillion in AUM (which is spread across 42,221 funds).

In March 2023, the industry overall suffered an estimated $25.527 billion in long-term fund outflows, equivalent to 0.11 percent of the industry's long-term AUM. That compares with $3.245 billion and 0.01 percent of AUM in February 2023, and with $30.653 billion in net inflows and 0.12 percent of AUM in March 2022.

Active funds suffered an estimated $58.306 billion in net outflows in March 2023, up M/M from $7.279 billion but down Y/Y from $70.411 billion. On the flip side, passive funds brought in $32.778 billion in March 2023 inflows, up M/M from $4.034 billion but down Y/Y from $101.064 billion.

***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 Q1 2023 their clients transfered about $1.6 billion (including about $300 million in March alone) out of T. Rowe mutual funds and into other T. Rowe products like CITs and SMAs. And T. Rowe is indeed a big retirement plan provider and DC I-O asset manager, especially in the target-date fund (TDF) space. 

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