In 2013, total mutual fund assets grew by nearly 20%, or $282 billion, largely thanks to to substantial asset growth in passively managed products, reports Cerulli Associates in its latest industry report, released Friday.
Equity products dominated the fund landscape last year, capturing flows of $232 billion, the research firm says. They jumped by $5 billion in December.
Last year, of course, the markets had a solid year.
While the major U.S. market indexes are down about 4% this month, they had a terrific 2013. The Dow Jones rose 29.65%, the S&P 500 32.39% and the NASDAQ 40.12%. Meanwhile the MSCI World Index Ex-USA has a total return of 21.57%.
The Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, however, dropped 2.02%.
"With few exceptions, the largest mutual fund managers continued to grow their asset bases over the course of 2013," said Cerulli in its latest report.
Of course, there were clear winners and losers among the mutual fund families in terms of fund flows in 2013. These results, the consulting group's research shows, are largely tied to the performance of certain key funds that investors either loved or despised last year.
10th Best
BLACKROCK (BLK)
BlackRock, owner of the iShares family of ETFs, had inflows of $11.4 billion last year. The latest Morningstar tally shows that fund had roughly $160 billion in total client assets. Its average fund performance was 11% in 2013, and its industry market share stayed steady over the past 12 months at 1.7%, Cerulli reports.
9th Best
JOHN HANCOCK
John Hancock funds added roughly $11.6 billion in 2013. The group's overall market share remained at 1.8%, and its funds had an average return of 14.3% last year. The company is part of Manulife Financial and is the main sponsor of the Boston Marathon.
8th Best
OAKMARK
Oakmark increased its market share to 2% from 1.8% last year, thanks to fund inflows of $13.6 billion. Its funds had a strong average performance of 17.3% last year. The Oakmark International Fund (OAKIX), for instance, is ranked by Morningstar as the best performer in its fund category, rising more than 17% for the past 12 months and full-year inflows of $12.5 billion.
7th Best
MAINSTAY
MainStay Funds had inflows of $14.2 billion, increasing their market share to 2% from 1.9% in 2013. The MainStay Marketfield Fund (MFLDX) attracted $13.4 billion on net assets. The long/short equity fund had returns of 10.65% last year. As of late January, it is down about 0.6%, putting it well ahead of the S&P 500's fall of over 3%, Morningstar says.
6th Best
GOLDMAN SACHS (GS)
Goldman Sachs funds attracted close to $15 billion in net inflows last year, giving it 3.8% market share vs. 3.6% a year earlier. The Goldman Sachs Strategic Income Fund (GSFAX) brought in over $11.5 billion fund flows. The fund, which has most of its holdings in short-term bonds, has a one-year performance of 4% and a three-year performance of nearly 5%.
5th Best
OPPENHEIMER FUNDS
Oppenheimer Funds, owned by Massachusetts Mutual Life, had fund inflows of over $16 billion in 2013, and its industry market share is close to 4%. Among its most popular products is the Oppenheimer Senior Floating Rate Fund (OOSAX), which had $11 billion of net inflows last year. The fund ticked up nearly 6% last year—nearly 6% ahead of most funds in its Morningstar category.
4th Best
MFS FUNDS
MFS Funds attracted some $18 billion on net inflows in 2013. Its current market share is about 4.7%, down from roughly 6% in 2012. Some of its most popular products are the MFS Lifetime 2010 Fund (MFSAX) and the MFS New Discovery Fund (MNDIX), a small-cap growth fund that rose 26.8% in the past 12 months, nearly 5% ahead of the S&P 500, according to Morningstar.
3rd Best
JPMORGAN FUNDS (JPM)
JPMorgan Funds had a stellar 2013, drawing more than $21 billion in net assets. The group now has about a 10% industry market share. The JPMorgan Strategic Income Opportunities Fund (JSOSX) had inflows of over $10 million last year; this fund has about $25 billion in total assets and it jumped more than 2% last year, ahead of most bond-focused investments. Another popular fund in its lineup is the JPMorgan Core Bond (WOBDX).
2nd Best
DIMENSIONAL FUND ADVISORS
Dimensional Fund Advisors, or DFA, had net inflows of nearly $23 billion in 2013. This helped push its market share to 10.6% of the industry from 10.1% a year earlier. Some of its top-performing funds are the DFA Tax-Managed US Marketwide Value (DTMMX), which rose over 40% last year, and the DFA Tax-Managed US Marketwide Value II (DFMVX), which had similarly strong results.
BEST
