Fund Flows Flat for December, $402B for Year

Annual net intake into long-term funds was $402 billion in 2014, according to Strategic Insight, an Asset International company. Equities captured nearly $300 billion of net intake in 2014, down from the prior year’s inflows of $450 billion.

Aggregate net flows to long-term stock and bond funds in December were flat, as $16.4 billion of net inflows to Equity products were offset by $16.7 billion of net redemptions from Bond funds. Net intake to Equity products totaled $16.4 billion in December, led by a $25.8 billion inflow to U.S. Equity.

Among U.S. Equity funds, demand continued to prevail for exchange-traded products which attracted a net $43.7 billion in December, lifting 2014 net intake to $134 billion.

Taxable Bond fund outflows totaled $21.3 billion in December, however the funds ended 2014 with $79.9 billion of net intake on the year.

Weighted average fund returns were negative in December for both U.S. Equity and International Equity funds, at -0.2% and -3.1%, respectively. Taxable Bond fund average returns were also slightly lower at -0.6%, while Tax-Free offerings returned 0.6% on the month. U.S. Equity led broad asset class average fund returns on the year at 10.1%.

Money Market fund net deposits totaled $86.4 billion in December.