And as you can see on slide three, if you're following along on the deck, net long-term flows were $13.3 billion during the quarter.
This represents over 4% annualized long-term organic growth for the quarter.
And since the third quarter of last year, we generated $86 billion of long-term inflows and an average quarterly organic growth rate of 6%.
ETFs, excluding the Qs, generated long-term inflows of $3.7 billion in the quarter with strong market share gains in our EMEA ETF range.
In private markets, we generated net long-term inflows in our direct real estate business, $1.2 billion, and robust bank loan product demand resulted in net long-term inflows of $2 billion during the quarter.
We generated net long-term inflows of $11 billion within active fixed income across the platform.
And within active global equities, the developing markets fund a key capability that came over when we combined with Oppenheimer, continue to see net long-term inflows of $700 million during the quarter.
In addition, our solutions-enabled institutional pipeline, accounts for 38% of the pipeline at quarter end.
Third quarter flows included net long-term inflows of $6.8 billion from Greater China.
We were an early entrant 20 years ago, and we are benefiting from that commitment and investment, and we expect to see continued growth in the years ahead.
Our investment performance was strong in the third quarter with 72% and 74% of actively managed funds in the top half of peers for being benchmarked on a five-year and a 10-year basis.
We ended the quarter with $1.529 trillion in AUM, a net increase of $3.6 billion.
As Marty noted earlier, our diversified platform generated net long-term inflows in the third quarter of $13.3 billion, representing a 4.4% annualized organic growth rate.
Active AUM net long-term inflows were $6.8 billion and passive AUM net long-term inflows were $6.5 billion.
Market declines in FX rate changes led to a decrease in AUM of $18.6 billion in the quarter.
The retail channel generated net long-term inflows of $1.8 billion, driven by positive ETF flows and inflows in Greater China.
The institutional channel demonstrated the breadth of our platform and generated net long-term inflows of $11.5 billion in the quarter, with diverse mandates, both regionally and by capabilities funding in the period.
Regarding retail net inflows, our ETF, excluding the QQQ, generated net long-term inflows of $3.7 billion.
Our global ETF platform, again, excluding the QQQ, captured a 3.8% market share of flows, which exceeded our 2.7% market share of AUM.
Our market share of the revenue pool was 5.6%.
Net ETF inflows in the United States does include net long-term inflows of $900 million into our QQQ innovation suite, which crossed $3 billion in AUM, one year after its launch.
Our EMEA-based ETF range generated $2.5 billion of net long-term inflows in the quarter, with particular strength from the IBC's S&P 500 UCITS ETF and the gold exchange traded commodity fund.
Looking at flows by geography on slide six, you'll note that the Americas had net long-term inflows of $4.8 billion in the quarter driven by net inflows into ETF, as mentioned, as well as our institutional flows.
Asia Pacific, again, delivered another strong quarter with net long-term inflows of $9.3 billion.
Net inflows were diversified across the region, reflecting $6.8 billion of net long-term inflows from Greater China, most of which arose in our JV and $3.1 billion from Japan.
We continue to see broad strength in fixed income in the third quarter with net long-term flows of $11 billion.
Net long-term flows and alternatives were $2.3 billion, driven primarily by our private markets business through a combination of inflows from direct real estate, the newly launched CLO that Marty mentioned and senior loan capabilities.
When excluding global GTR net outflows of $1.7 billion, alternative net long-term inflows were $4 billion.
The strength of our alternatives platform can be seen through the flow that is generated over the past five quarters with net long-term flows totaling $12 billion and organic's growth rate that's averaging nearly 6% per quarter over this time when excluding the impact of the GTR net outflows over this period.
Invesco launched the first Sino U.S. JV in China in 2003 as Invesco Great Wall.
While we have 49% ownership of the JV, our partner is a Chinese government-backed power company and has been a good partner.
In 20 years, it has grown from almost nothing to around $3.5 trillion.
It's expected to become the second largest fund management market in the world by 2025 with assets of over $6 trillion.
Also, China is estimated to account for over 40% of global net flows through 2024.
We have built a diversified business in China with over $99 billion in AUM at the end of September.
60% of the AUM is from retail clients and 40% is institutional.
Our long-term commitment and strong track record have put Invesco in an advantageous position and our strategic position and continued investment in China has resulted in a 42% annual growth rate over the last three years to date.
Now moving to slide nine to look at the institutional pipeline, which was $32 billion at the end of September.
Our solutions capability enabled 38% of the global institutional pipeline and created wins and customized mandates.
You'll note that net revenues increased $31 million, or 2.3%, from the second quarter as a result of higher average AUM in the third quarter.
The net revenue yield, excluding performance fees, was 34.4 basis points, a decrease of 0.4 on the basis points from the second quarter yield level.
The incremental impact from higher discretionary money market fee waivers was minimal relative to the second quarter and the full impact on the net revenue yield for the third quarter was 0.6 of a basis point.
Total adjusted operating expenses increased 1.2% in the third quarter.
The $10 million increase in operating expenses was mainly driven by variable compensation and property, office and technology expense.
This change went into effect in the third quarter and resulted in a $6 million expense increase, which was offset by a corresponding increase in service and distribution revenue.
As a reminder, we anticipate that our outsourced administration costs, which we reflect in property, office and technology expense, will increase by approximately $25 million on an annual basis or approximately $6 million per quarter.
In the third quarter, we realized $5.8 million in cost savings.
$4 million of these savings is related to compensation expense associated with reorganization and $2 million was related to property expense.
A $5.8 million in cost savings, or $23 million annualized, combined with $125 million in annualized savings realized for the second in quarter 2021 brings us to $148 million in total, or 74%, of our $200 million net savings expectation.
As it relates to timing, we expect to modestly exceed the $150 million target we have set for 2021, with the remainder realized by the end of 2022.
We expect the total program savings of $200 million through 2022 would be roughly 65% from compensation and 35% spread across the other categories.
In the third quarter, we incurred $18 million of restructuring costs.
In total, we recognized nearly $190 million of our estimated $250 million to $275 million in restructuring costs that were associated with the program.
We expect the remaining restructuring costs for the realization of this program to be in the range of $60 million to $85 million through the end of next year.
Adjusted operating income improved $21 million to $562 million for the quarter, driven by the factors we just reviewed.
Adjusted operating margin improved 60 basis points, 42.1% as compared to the second quarter.
Most importantly, our degree of positive operating leverage reflected in our non-GAAP results was 1.7 times for the quarter, underscoring our focus on driving scale and profitability across our diversified platform.
Nonoperating income was $29 million, driven primarily by unrealized gains in our co-investment portfolio.
The effective tax rate for the third quarter was 24.4% compared to 22.8% in the second quarter.
We estimate our non-GAAP effective tax rate to be between 23% and 24% for the fourth quarter.
Our operating margin in the third quarter of 2019, which was the first full quarter following the acquisition of Oppenheimer, was 40.9%.
At that time, we reported a net revenue yield of 40.7 basis points.
In the third quarter of 2021, our net revenue yield had declined over six basis points to 34.4 basis points, yet our operating margin has improved to 42.1%.
This chart starts at the third quarter of 2019, but in fact, our third quarter 2021 operating margin is the highest since Invesco became a U.S.-listed company in 2007.
In fact, the growth of the QQQ over this period is remarkable, almost tripling in size and going from 6% of our AUM mix in the third quarter of 2019 to 12% at the end of this quarter.
Even though we do not earn a management fee, as a sponsor of the QQQ, we managed the over $100 million annual marketing budget generated by the product.
These two factors alone account for over 40% of the decline in the net revenue yield over this period.
Our balance sheet cash position was $1.8 billion on September 30 and approximately $725 million of this cash was held for regulatory requirements.
The cash position has improved meaningfully over the past year, increasing by nearly $700 million, largely driven by the improvement in our operating income.
Our leverage ratio, as defined under our credit facility agreement, declined from 1.43 times a year ago to under one times at 0.86 turns at the end of the third quarter.
If you choose to include the preferred stock, the leverage ratio has declined from just over four times to 2.67 times at the end of the third quarter.
Regarding future cash requirements, we recorded an additional downward adjustment to the MLP liability in the third quarter, reducing the liability from our previous estimate of nearly $300 million down to $254 million.
As we look toward 2022 and beyond, we will be building toward a 30% to 50% total payout ratio over the next several years as we continue to modestly increase dividends and reinstate a share buyback program in the future.

Summary:
And since the third quarter of last year, we generated $86 billion of long-term inflows and an average quarterly organic growth rate of 6%.
When excluding global GTR net outflows of $1.7 billion, alternative net long-term inflows were $4 billion.