Morningstar: Inflows led by international and Vanguard

Morningstar, Inc. recently reported estimated U.S. mutual fund asset flows for October 2013. U.S. equity funds collected $10.5 billion, their highest monthly inflow since January. International-equity funds also had a solid month, leading all category groups with inflows of $12.2 billion. But continued outflows from taxable- and municipal-bond funds tempered overall inflows, which totaled $17.8 billion for the month.
Additional trends:

• Active U.S.-equity funds had strong monthly inflows for only the third time in 2013, a year many heralded as the great rotation into active strategies after years of passive-fund flow dominance. While the trend has not materialized, outflows from active equity funds have amounted to $15.3 billion for the year to date compared with outflows of $131.5 billion in 2012.
• Equity categories took the top three spots in terms of inflows by category, led by foreign large blend. October was the first month since March that bank loan, nontraditional bond, or world bond did not lead all categories in flows, and the first time in more than a year that the bank-loan category was not in the top five.
• Inflation-protected bond funds saw their largest outflow on record, with $4.8 billion fleeing the category in October. The average fund in the category has lost 5.9 percent year to date.
• Vanguard dominated inflows at the provider level in October, collecting new assets of $6.0 billion overall and led by inflows of $2.1 billion for Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund. Vanguard's market share of mutual fund assets stands at 17.5 percent, up from 15.6 percent three years ago. American Funds' market share has fallen to 10.0 percent from 12.0 percent over the same period, and PIMCO's has dropped to 5.1 percent after peaking at 6.1 percent in late 2012.

To view the complete report, please visit http://www.global.morningstar.com/octflows13.