Vanguard, J.P. Morgan, BlackRock Lead Fund Flows in First Half

The Vanguard Group, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and BlackRock Inc. led the nation’s largest asset managers in long-term fund inflows in the first half of 2023, according to data from ISS Market Intelligence Simfund, which, like PLANADVISER, is owned by Institutional Shareholder Services Inc.

Vanguard and BlackRock, which are also among the nation’s largest defined contribution only investment managers, saw positive net inflows driven in large part by passive mutual funds and passive exchange traded funds through June 30.

Vanguard led the pack with about $42 billion in net new flows, with inflows from passive funds being offset by outflows of $29 billion from actively managed mutual funds. BlackRock, for its part, saw the third-highest inflows at $15.4 billion, with active outflows of $13.2 billion cutting down passive gains.

J.P. Morgan saw the second-highest inflows in the period at $35 billion and bucked a trend toward passive management by seeing most of its gains from actively managed funds. The asset manager had $26 billion in active net new flows, and $8.9 billion in passive new flows. No other firms saw inflows in both active and passive strategies.

The Capital Group Companies, which owns American Funds, only provides actively managed funds, and saw net outflows of $20.2 billion, according to Simfund.

When it came to the less popular active funds, ETFs led the charge with $25.6 billion of inflows, as compared to $213 billion in outflows from actively managed mutual funds. Passive ETFs came in at $184.4 billion in inflows, and passive mutual funds were $57.4 billion.

Overall net flows came in at $74.5 billion in the first half, well outpacing 2022 inflows for the same period, which were a total of $54.3 billion.

Outflows from actively managed funds overall of $95 billion was still a lot less significant than the same period of 2022. During that time period, active outflows hit $187.5 billion, according to the data. Meanwhile, total passive inflows were $241.9 billion in the first half of 2022, and $135.3 billion for the first half of 2023.

When it came to total assets under management by firm, the top 10 from 2022 to 2023 remained the same but for one new entrant. Charles Schwab entered at the tenth spot, replacing Franklin Resources Inc., the parent of Franklin Templeton Investments, which had been in the 9^th spot in 2022.