Too Big To Fail -- January 13, 2018

Two links:

• Vanguard, early 2017, reaches $4 trillion for the first time -- WSJ
• Blackrock, early 2018, reaches new milestone, $6 trillion; up more than $1 trillion at end of 2016 -- WSJ

Blackrock:

• net inflows for the year (2017) $367 billion; sets a new record
• $1 billion of new client cash every day
• passed $6 trillion in assets for the first time
• up more than $1 trillion from the end of 2016
• most new cash (67%) went to it iShares ETFs -- low-cost products tied to indexes
• iShares finished 2017 with more assets than BlackRock's actively managed products for the first time
• pace of new investor cash puts BlackRock in same league as rival Vanguard Group
• Vanguard Group
• $369.3 billion in new money last year (2017)
• ended 2017 with $4.9 trillion
• everyone else "fighting for scraps"
• Vanguard and BlackRock together: $11.2 trillion -- higher than the GDP of China in 2016
• BlackRock topped $5 trillion in assets at the end of 2016
• BlackRock has a larger international business than Vanguard