Further findings for 2014 Morningstar fund flows data include:
- Asset flows into equity funds reached EUR 44.77 billion for the year 2014, less than half of the total inflows seen in 2013.
- Allocation funds netted EUR 136.19 billion, the highest inflow of all categories.
- Bond funds collected inflows of EUR 123.52 billion, almost double their 2013 total.
- Overall, open-end index funds took in net EUR 34.46 billion, most of which were sent into equity products; inflows for equity index funds (excluding ETFs) reached EUR 21.28 billion, up from EUR 15.76 billion in 2013.
- Swiss UBS was a main beneficiary of a surge of Swiss money into index funds, with EUR 2.77 billion going into funds distributed in Switzerland.
- Investors pulled EUR 8.19 billion out of PIMCO GIS Total Return; outflows from the PIMCO flagship fund were the sole driver of redemptions out of USD diversified bond funds.
- BlackRock profited from the highest inflows for the second year running, although the firm’s 2014’s intake of EUR 18.47 billion was significantly below its 2013 inflows.
- M&G Optimal Income, which holds a Morningstar Analyst Rating™ of Silver, surpassed its 2013 success with 2014 net inflows of EUR 8.92 billion.
Morningstar’s Ali Masarwah of Morningstar’s European Fund Flows team, comments:
“2014 will arguably be remembered as the year of the allocation fund, with mixed-asset products netting more than any other broad category group. Meanwhile, the year was also marked by a notable increase in flows into index funds. The growth is not, however, uniform across Europe. The UK and Switzerland, two countries in which commission-based advice is in retreat, saw the highest demand for index funds.”
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