During the last decade, the U.S. mutual fund industry experienced an unprecedented movement toward passive investments. We tie this shift to underperformance in active funds stemming from a reduction in alpha opportunities. As alpha opportunities decrease, performance predictors like Active...

We explore a new channel to attract inflows using a unique dataset of corporate 401(k) retirement plans and their mutual fund family trustees. Families secure substantial inflows by attracting 401(k) plan assets through being trustee. This affords the plan sponsor potential influence on the...

We show that fire sales by distressed funds are systematically offset by purchases of other funds in the same family. Our results suggest that these off-exchange trades are mainly the outcome of coordinated strategies at the fund manager level. This type of co-insurance is more likely when (i)...

Hedge fund flows chase alpha, yet they also follow returns attributable to traditional and exotic risk exposures. Investors appear more cognizant of exotic risks over time, with flows increasing their relative emphasis on returns from exotic betas in recent years. Investors also discriminate...

CAPM alpha explains hedge fund flows better than alphas from more sophisticated models. This suggests that investors pool together sophisticated model alpha with returns from exposures to traditional (except for the market) and exotic risks. We decompose performance into traditional and exotic...