While Vanguard and PIMCO have continually proven their strength in the U.S. marketplace in recent years, a Morningstar study released in March shows the two firms had a stellar 2012 worldwide.
"No survey of the global fund industry is complete without a discourse on the breathtaking successes of Vanguard and PIMCO. These two giants captured 16% and 18%, respectively, of worldwide long-term mutual fund flows in 2012," the fund-research firm said in "2012: Annual Global Flows Report."
When looking at both mutual funds and ETFs, Vanguard raked in $145 billion in long-term flows. It ended the year with $1.9 trillion in assets, and a most of its worldwide AUM is in funds with a 4- or 5-star Morningstar rating.
Plus, the firm's 2012 flow is greater than the sum of flows into 3,244 fund groups, though only 3% of its AUM is non-U.S. based.
As for PIMCO, the California manager has brought in roughly $353 billion of inflows since early 2008. It broke the $100 billion barrier for the first time in 2012.
The group "responded to the financial crisis with products that resonate with investor tastes, such as Real Return, Commodity Real Return, Unconstrained Bond, and Emerging Local Bond," explained Morningstar, noting that about one third of PIMCO flows in 2012 went into funds without a three-year track record.
About 20% of the assets managed by PIMCO, which is owned by Paris-based Allianz, are held outside the United States.
"Despite ongoing worldwide economic uncertainty, the global fund management industry grew at a 3.9% organic growth rate in 2012," said Syl Flood, product manager, investment research for Morningstar, in a statement.
Excluding money market funds, the $565 billion that went into mutual funds in 2012 fell short $746 billion in 2009 flows and $672 billion in 2010.
"The prevailing global trend in 2012 was investors' hunger for yield and quest for the perceived safety of fixed-income funds. Worldwide, fixed-income funds gathered $535 billion in 2012, or nearly 95% of long-term net inflows."