Passive index funds -- with Vanguard in the vanguard -- continue to dominate active managers in terms of fund flows.
In the January 2017 Mutual Fund and ETF Asset Flows report from Chicago-based Morningstar, investors put nearly $77 billion into passive funds last month, while pulling $13.6 billion from active products.
According to the report, investors put $30.6 billion into U.S. equity passive funds in January, compared with $50.8 billion invested in passive equities in December 2016.
The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSMX) enjoyed the most inflows of any fund in January, raking in almost $10 billion. For the month, Vanguard funds accounted for all five of the top passive funds in terms of inflows and one of the top five active funds in terms of inflows, according to Morningstar.
Morningstar writes that Vanguard continues to dominate the asset management industry, pulling in $1.1 billion of investor money each day of 2016.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF experienced the largest outflows among passive funds in January, at $3.3 billion, which Morningstar deemed “typical” of the fund’s flow patterns each year.
On the active side, investors took $20.8 billion of assets out of U.S. equity funds in January, and also pulled almost $2 billion from sector equity funds and nearly $1.4 billion from international equity.
At the same time, investors put more than $9.6 billion into active taxable bond funds, and more than $3.8 billion into municipal fixed income, according to Morningstar.
Pimco suffered highs and lows: The Pimco Income fund had the largest January inflows among active funds at $1.6 billion, while the Pimco Total Return Fund had the largest outflows for the month, also at $1.6 billion. American Funds Balanced Fund was the second-ranked fund in terms of inflows, garnering $915 million.
Fixed income accounted for the bulk of January’s inflows, at $36.5 billion, $32.2 billion of which flowed into traditional, taxable bond funds.