The managed funds industry, consisting of open unlisted unit trusts and Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) represented in the Rainmaker Information database, had estimated positive net flows of $17 billion in the 12 months to March 2025.
This represents a total gain of 2% of funds under management (FUM) due to net flows (not including returns from market returns).
There was a sharp contrast between unit trusts and ETPs, with unit trusts suffering negative net flows of $15.7 billion over the 12 months and ETP’s benefitting from positive net flows of $29 billion.
Total FUM in the sample increased $40 billion or 6% from $806 billion to $854 billion.
Unit trusts gained 1% or $8 billion over 12 months. Without the positive market returns the loss to unit trusts would have been 2% from net funds flow.
ETPs had a total gain of 24% year-on-year ($40 billion), of which 17% came from net flows and 7% from market gains.
In terms of net flows for individual products, ETPs had 190 products with 12-month positive net flows versus 74 with negative net flows (71% positive).
This contrasts with unit trusts which had a ratio of positive to negative flows of 0.6 (340 with positive net flows versus 513 with negative net flows).
Asset classes
Seven asset class sectors had positive net flows over the 12 months: Short duration bonds (credit, high yield and absolute return), Australian equities large cap, diversified bonds, international equities small caps, cash, international equities large cap and emerging markets equities.
The fastest growing sector is international equities small caps, which grew 29% over 12 months from $2.4 billion of net funds flow. This compares with international equities large cap, which had slightly positive net flows of $473 million.
The largest negative net flows occurred in property (negative $3.7 billion) and diversified (growth, value and capital stable) with $2.2 billion in outflows.
12-month sector net flows to 31 March 2025
Investment managers
Of the 160 managers in the Rainmaker Information managed funds database, 70 had net inflows and 90 had net outflows over 12 months. 44% had positive net flows and 56% had negative net flows.
For managers with net inflows, the median was $142 million and the mean was $722 million
For managers with net outflows, the median was negative $104 million and the mean outflow was $373 million.
Top 10 managers by net flows to 31 March 2025
Products
Six of the top 10 products based on net flows were ETPs. The product with the highest net flows was the iShares Global Bond Index Fund with $3 billion.
Of the 1120 products in the sample, 530 (47%) had positive net flows and 587 (53%) had negative net flows over 12 months. The average net flow for products with positive net flows was $141 million, while the average net outflow for products with negative flows was $98 million.
Of the 266 ETPs in the sample (dual access funds have been excluded), 71% had positive net flows in the past 12 months, while 29% had negative net flows. Of the positive net flow ETPs, the average net flow was $168 million, while the average negative net flow was $38 million.
The ETP with the highest net flows was the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF with $2.5 billion (FUM growth of 16% due to net flows).
In the top 10 products by flow for both unit trusts and ETPs, seven were low cost indexed products, two were private credit funds and one actively managed international equities.
Top 10 products by net flows to 31 March 2025
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