Morningstar, a leading provider of independent investment research, today reported estimated U.S. mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows for the full-year and December 2020. For the full year, long-term mutual funds and ETFs gathered $212 billion, which was below the $356 billion average annual inflow from 2010 through 2019. In December, long-term mutual funds and ETFs collected more than $86 billion—the second-largest monthly gain in 2020 behind November’s $111 billion.

Morningstar’s report about U.S. fund flows for the full-year and December 2020 is available here. Highlights from the report include:

• ETFs posted calendar-year record inflows of $502 billion, with taxable-bond ETFs collecting the most of any category group at nearly $195 billion in 2020. Meanwhile, mutual funds saw a record $289 billion of outflows in 2020, yet their $18.2 trillion of total assets at year’s end was more than three times the total assets of ETFs.
• Looking at category groups, U.S. equity funds’ $241 billion of outflows for the year was four times the previous record of $58 billion set in 2015. Large-growth equity funds had $66 billion of outflows in 2020, marking their 17th consecutive year of outflows.
• Taxable-bond funds collected $73 billion of inflows in December and a record $441 billion for the year. The Federal Reserve bought high-yield and corporate bond funds midyear to support the fixed-income market, and its actions helped both categories garner record inflows in 2020 of $54 billion and $52 billion, respectively.
• Commodities funds drew a record $37.6 billion in 2020 as investors added gold and silver to their portfolios through ETFs such as SPDR Gold shares amid economic and social turmoil.
• Vanguard led all fund families in 2020 with nearly $141 billion of inflows. Dimensional Fund Advisors saw the most outflows in 2020 at $37 billion. In December, Vanguard saw $25.2 billion of inflows, the second-most for the year behind the $42.7 billion of inflows in January 2020.

To view the complete report, please click here.

Source:  Morningstar