Morningstar: March 2020 Outflows Tops 2008

The market volatility caused by the global pandemic has hit the markets hard despite the federal government’s efforts to ease the pain. Morningstar notes that investors pulled $326 billion from mutual funds and ETFs overall in March — more than three times the $104 billion in outflows in October 2008 during the last major financial crisis. The outflows in March 2020 accounted for 1.7% of $19.7 trillion in fund assets, compared to the 1.5% of fund assets that exited funds in October 2008. Morningstar noted that passively managed equity funds saw inflows of $41 billion while investors withdrew a net $31 billion from actively managed funds in March. Money market funds also gained in March, drawing a record $685 billion in such funds. Taxable bond funds, in contrast, experienced a record outflow of $240 billion.