And they say April is the cruelest month.

It was another brutal month for Pimco, and another stellar, stellar month for Vanguard.

According to Morningstar's Morningstar Direct U.S. Open-End Asset Flows Update for May, Pimco saw nearly $5.5 billion that month (and close to 26.5 billion year-to-date), while Fido saw nearly $3 billion in outflows (and nearly $4.9 billion year-to-date).

Vanguard, of course, saw almost $11.6 billion of inflows in May (and $57.21 billion year-to-date). J.P. Morgan saw nearly $2.17 billion in inflows.

Top 5 Fund Families in Terms of Inflows
1. Vanguard $11.58 billion
2. J. P. Morgan $2.17 billion
3. Dimensional Fund Advisors $2.05 billion
4. John Hancock $1.98 billion
5. BlackRock $1.64 billion

Top 5 Fund Families in Terms of Outflows
1. Pimco $5.50 billion
2. Fidelity $2.996
3. Thornburg $1.12 billion
4. American Funds $0.71 billion
5. Janus $0.699 billion


Fido did experience what, on the surface, would appear to be noticeable outflows. But, the report explains that much of these flows were actually transfers from mutual funds to UCITs. The major driver, apparently, would be cost. On a larger note, the report notes that the marketshare of active mutual funds has dropped from 89 percent to 64 percent over the past 15 years in part due to costs (The report notes that passive equity funds cost on average 14 bps compared to 80 bps for active.

This point resonates with a recentcolumn by John Rekenthaler explaining why the discount wars in mutual funds will only worsen.

The Morningstar report provides a breakdown of the top 25 fund families in terms of flows, as well as the top investment categories, as well as flow breakdowns of several of the major funds themselves. 

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