Investor flight to passively managed funds and alternative products could knock as much as $38 billion, or 26 percent, off actively managed fund fees through 2012, according to a Boston Consulting Group report picked up by Bloomberg.

In 2007, active funds pulled in $147 billion in fees, which was also the amount generated by hedge funds, private equity funds and real estate funds. ETFs and index funds, meanwhile, generated $6 billion.

According to Boston Consulting, the share of mutual fund revenue globally could shrink to 36 percent of the asset management industry's total in the next four years, compared to 49 percent in 2007.

"Investors have wised up to the fact that the performance of classic active funds has failed to live up to benchmarks," Michael Spellacy, a partner in Boston Consulting's financial-institutions division, told Bloomberg.

The return of the average U.S. diversified mutual fund fell by 40 percent this year through end-October, according to Moringstar data. U.S. investors yanked $70.7 billion from equity funds in October, according to TrimTabs Investment Research. 

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