Morningstar's latest report on U.S. asset flows finds that despite stock-market gains worldwide, taxable-bond funds topped all asset classes in October. The group had inflows of $16.6 billion, the highest intake for the category group since March 2015, according to the research group. Passively managed funds were the main driver of these inflows; active taxable-bond funds had outflows of $1.5 billion.
All category groups experienced active-fund outflows, except for municipal-bond and alternatives funds. International-equity funds continued to receive steady inflows, though at smaller levels than those seen earlier this year.
Reversing trends seen in September, high-yield and intermediate-term bond moved into the top-five categories with the greatest inflows in October after having top outflows a month earlier.
The top-five actively managed funds that drew inflows in October are all fixed-income funds: Fidelity Advisor Total Bond, DoubleLine Total Return Bond, PIMCO Income, Northern High Yield Fixed Income and Metropolitan West Total Return Bond.
As for fund families, BlackRock/iShares had $15.0 billion in passive inflows, while Vanguard had $14.7 billion. JPMorgan ranked first in active inflows at $2.2 billion for October, followed by Fidelity at $1.7 billion.
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Vanguard says two veteran fund managers will retire in mid-2016: Lucius T. Hill and Karl E. Bandtel of Wellington Management Company.
Hill has advised the $14.2 billion Vanguard Long-Term Investment-Grade Fund since 2008. He joined Wellington in 1993 and has over 30 years of experience in the investment-management industry.
