An employee-owned growth equity boutique takes the lead as the smallest fund firms' inflows slip.

Daniel "Dan" Forbes Dent D.F. Dent and Company Chairman, Founder, Portfolio Manager, Analyst

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on August 2020 open-end mutual fund and ETF flows, excluding money-market funds and funds of funds. More specifically, this article focuses on the 495 firms (down from 501 in July) with less than $1 billion each in long-term fund AUM. 215 of those firms gained net inflows in August (down from 222 in July), and 231 gained net year-to-date inflows by the end of August.

DF Dent Funds took the micro firm lead last month, thanks to an estimated $91 million in net August inflows, up from $16 million in July. Other big August inflows winners included: Toroso, $84 million (down from $103 million); Advisors Preferred, $80 million (up from $25 million); TrimTabs, $71 million (up from $3 million in net outflows); and EMQQ, $61 million (up from $53 million).

PartnerSelect was the only apparent newcomer to the business last month.

So far in 2020, Toroso leads the pack, thanks to an estimated $667 million in net inflows YTD as of August 31. Other big YTD inflows winners include: Axonic, $520 million; Rational, $362 million; Loberty Street, $337 million; and DF Dent, $311 million.

On the flip side, August was a rough month for Elements Funds, which suffered an estimated $172 million in net outflows, up from $6 million in July. Other big August outflows sufferers included: Liberty Street, $92 million (up from $50 million; Stralem, $60 million (up from $1 million); MainGate, $38 million (up from $31 million); and Aware, $35 million (up from $21 million).

So far this year, Elements also leads the pack with net YTD outflows of $1.407 billion as of August 31. Other big outflows sufferers so far in 2020 included: Schroder, $709 million; Chiron, $704 million; CRM, $478 million; and Highland, $283 million.

As a group, the 495 firms with less than $1 billion each in long-term fund AUM brought in an estimated $553 million in net August inflows, equivalent to 0.6 percent of their combined AUM and accounting for 1.34 percent of net industry inflows. That's down from $828 million in net inflows and0.87 percent of AUM.

Year-to-date, as of the end of August, micro fund firms suffered an estimated $1.896 billion in net outflows, equivalent to 2.04 percent of their combined AUM and accounting for 10.83 percent of net industry outflows YTD.

Across the entire industry, the 752 fund firms (down from 757 in July) tracked by the M* team brought in an estimated $41.403 billion in net August inflows, equivalent to 0.19 percent of their combined AUM (up from $41.339 billion but down from 0.2 percent in July). Active funds brought in an estimated $25.225 billion in net August inflows (up from $12.052 billion in July), while passive funds brought in an estimated $16.196 billion (down from $29.831 billion). YTD, the industry has suffered an estimated $17.515 billion in net outflows, equivalent to 0.08 percent of industry AUM. 

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