Among the 10 largest mutual fund managers, all reported positive market appreciation while only three experienced net outflows through the first five months of 2019. Over that period, the industry had combined net inflows of $114 billion, while adding $1.13 trillion in market value to client accounts. The largest mutual fund manager, Vanguard Group, had net inflows of $54 billion and leveraged its $3 trillion-plus asset base to market gains of $296 billion, more than the combined gains of the next two managers: American Funds and Fidelity.
T. Rowe Price, Franklin Templeton and Invesco were the managers with net outflows through May. Invesco led the trio with $12.5 billion in net redemptions.
T. Rowe Price, despite the negative net flows, led its peers in relative market appreciation. The active manager grew assets by 10.6% through May. On a relative basis, its net outflows represented only about 0.5% of its 2018 ending assets.
Flows to the largest funds were almost exclusively to passive strategies, particularly developed, broad-market focused equity and bond funds. Vanguard and Fidelity managed nine of the top 10 funds by year-to-date asset flows; Pacific Investment Management Co.'s Income fund was the only active fund among the group. Active funds had negative net outflows in the first five months, despite about $21 billion in net inflows in January and February.
