Drew Carter

Long-term US fund flows returned to recent form in April, taking in $120 billion in new assets and marking the 12th straight month of inflows. While it may seem like much of the same, a significant change in trend took place. Bond funds have carried inflows over the past year, but equity funds made a comeback across the board in April. Markets appeared to price in the resolution of the Iran war, luring investors toward higher-risk assets. Source: Morningstar Direct. Data as of April 30, 2026.

Long-term US fund flows slowed significantly in March, bringing in under $48 billion, which ended a three-month run of $100 billion-plus in monthly inflows. This was the lowest monthly intake since April 2025’s net outflow as investors recoiled to the impacts of the war in Iran. While taxable-bond funds drove most of the month’s inflows again, it was a lackluster month for the category group, with investors derisking within their fixed-income allocations.

Polen Growth POLRX, a onetime consistently strong-performing and highly rated concentrated growth fund, has had a rough go the past few years. Its institutional shares have trailed the Russell 1000 Growth for six straight calendar years, landing it in the lowest tenth of large-growth Morningstar Category peers over trailing one-, three-, five-, and 10-year periods through February 2026.