Morningstar: Fund flows to international, one MainStay Fund, and Vanguard for September 2013

Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today reported estimated U.S. mutual fund asset flows for September 2013. Long-term mutual funds collected tepid inflows of $2.5 billion during the month, as municipal-bond funds saw a seventh consecutive month of outflows. Since March, muni-bond funds have lost $48.1 billion to outflows, surpassing redemptions of $44.8 billion seen from November 2010 through August 2011. Taxable-bond funds endured their fourth-straight month of outflows, although the pace of selling slowed relative to June's record outflows. Morningstar estimates net flow by computing the change in assets not explained by the performance of the fund. Click here for a full explanation of Morningstar's methodology.

Additional highlights from Morningstar's report on mutual fund flows:

• U.S. equity funds saw their largest monthly outflow for the year to date, but the $3.3 billion in redemptions was small compared with the $9.1 billion average monthly outflow seen by the category group in 2012.
• International-equity funds led all category groups in September with inflows of $7.3 billion; the group also leads all others for the year-to-date period with inflows of $103.2 billion.
• Alternative mutual funds had the highest organic growth rate among category groups, but the growth was largely driven by just one fund—MainStay Marketfield. The fund, which has a Morningstar Analyst Rating™ of Bronze, brought in $1.7 billion for the month and $10.2 billion year to date. 
• Vanguard had the highest provider-level inflows with $3.2 billion, followed by Goldman Sachs and Dimensional Fund Advisors. PIMCO saw outflows of $6.5 billion; since June, heavy outflows of $30.2 billion from PIMCO Total Return have contributed to the firm's overall outflows of $38.2 billion.

To view the complete report, please visit http://www.global.morningstar.com/septflows13. For more information about Morningstar Asset Flows, please visit http://global.morningstar.com/assetflows.