Facts, Facts and More Facts: Mutual Fund Industry – 2011 Wrap-up – Blog

Mutual funds (including exchange-traded funds or ETFs) ended 2011 with $803 billion in assets, marginally below (-0.61%) the level at the outset of the year. The industry brought in $15.5 billion in net flows for all funds and just over $20 billion for long-term funds. Fixed income funds—a category that encompasses all bond fund flavors—accounted for more than 60% of net flows, followed by balanced funds with 43% of inflows. These two categories accounted for more than 100% of long-term net flows, while equity funds ended the year with net redemptions of $1 billion. Mutual fund of funds (MFoFs) accounted for the vast majority of industry net flows during the year, reeling in $14.6 billion, or 94% of the total; their assets grew by 9.5% during the year. ETFs were another fast-expanding structure. ETF asset base ended 2011 at an all-time high of $43.2 billion, posting a one-year grow rate of 12.9%. For more details see our upcoming January 2012 Annual Industry Review issue of Insight Report http://investoreconomics.com/issue/insight-advisory-service. Posted by Sandeep Gosal, sandeep@iei.ca