A giant retirement plan sponsor's bespoke, subadvised mutual funds led the small fund firm pack last month, even as flows plummeted industrywide.

The fund flows information within this article draws from Morningstar Direct data on mutual fund and ETF flows in October 2018, specifically for small fund firms (those with between $1 billion and $10 billion in fund AUM).

Kaiser Permanente's KP Funds (which are powered by Callan) took the lead among small fund firms last month, bringing in an estimated $619 million in October net inflows, up from $31 million in September. Other big October inflows winners included: Tortoise, $227 million (up from $56 million in net outflows); Pacer, $212 million (up from $121 million); KraneShares, $202 million (down from $252 million); and AlphaCentric, $189 million (up from $129 million).

Proportionately, Acadian led the small fund firm pack last month, with estimated October net inflows equivalent to 11.84 percent of its AUM, up from 0.65 percent in net outflows in September. Other big October inflows winners included: KraneShares, 10.77 percent (down from 12.71 percent); KP, 8.55 percent (up from 0.43 percent); Pacer, 7.1 percent (up from 4.03 percent); and AlphaCentric, 6.83 percent (up from 4.97 percent).

On the flip side, October was a rough month for Milleis, which suffered $498 million in net outflows, down from $121 million in net inflows in September. Other big October sufferers included: Hennessy, $338 million (up from $84 million); the Capital Group funds (not to be confused with the firm's famous American Funds), $317 million (up from $24 million); Robo Global, $253 million (up from $29 million); and Frontier, $192 million (down from $24 million in net inflows).

Proportionately, Robo Global suffered the most in October, with estimated net outflows equivalent to 16.11 percent of its AUM, up from 1.39 percent in September. Other big October outflows sufferers included: Frontier, 10.19 percent (down from 1.11 percent in net inflows); James Advantage, 8.23 percent (up from 3.55 percent); Milleis 8.12 percent (down from 1.85 percent in net inflows); and Highland, 5.87 percent (down from 2.81 percent in net inflows).

Of 154 small fund firms, 89 suffered net outflows last month. As a group, small fund firms suffered an estimated $1.646 billion in net outflows in October, equivalent to 0.34 percent of their combined AUM. That's down from $1.499 billion in net inflows in September.

Industrywide, long-term, open-end mutual funds and ETFs suffered a combined $29.184 billion in net outflows in October, equivalent to 0.16 percent of their combined AUM. That's down from $28.269 billion in net industry inflows in September. 

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