Facts, Facts and More Facts: August 2012 Fund Industry Wrap-up

In August, a combination of positive sales and stronger equity valuations pushed long-term mutual fund assets to a historical high of $820 billion. At $1.4 billion, August’s long-term mutual fund net flow activity slowed down compared to July but represented a significant improvement over the previous year. The year-to-date net flow tally neared $21 billion, second only to 2007’s result for the first eight months of the year.

Not all asset flavors are benefitting from the pick-up in sales activity. In the year-to-date, the broad bond fund category has generated $21.5 billion in net flows with 61% coming from stand-alone fund sales (as opposed to flows generated by fund wraps). In August, MFoFs that fell under the conservative, income and income and moderate growth risk profiles accounted for 83% of $1.7 billion in net flows generated by MFoFs. On a year-to-date basis, the share of income-oriented portfolio profiles is 81%.

After breaching the $50 billion mark in July, ETF assets continued to grow in August, reaching $51.7 billion. Net creations added $1.2 billion during the month. Mirroring the asset class directionality observed in the broader mutual fund universe, fixed income funds accounted for over 60% of the inflows. 

For more details see the upcoming September 2012 issue of Insight Advisory Service http://investoreconomics.com/issue/insight-advisory-service. Posted by Sandeep Gosal Sandeep@iei.ca.