A fixed income shop took the lead last month among the smallest fund firms as the group's net flows improved by $883 million.

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on January 2023 open-end mutual fund and ETF flows, excluding money-market funds and funds of funds. (Other asset management products, like CITs and SMAs, are also not included.) More specifically, this article focuses on the 519 firms (up month-over-month from 518 in December 2022 and up year-over-year from 516 in January 2022) with less than $1 billion each in long-term fund AUM.

Micro fund firms had $100 billion in total, long-term AUM across 2,730 funds as of January 31, 2023, accounting for 0.41 percent of overall industry long-term fund AUM. That compares with $97.302 billion and 0.43 percent on December 31, 2022, and with $93 billion and 0.35 percent on January 31, 2022.

248 of those micro fund firms brought in net inflows in January 2023, up M/M from 211 in December 2022 but down Y/Y from 300 in January 2022.

BondBloxx took the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $137 million in net January 2023 inflows, up M/M from 26 million in December 2022. Other big January 2023 inflows winners included: Kovitz, $132 million (up M/M from $44 million); Strive, $126 million (up M/M from $21 million); AllianzIM, $88 million (down M/M from $107 million, up Y/Y from $18 million in January 2022); and North Slope, $73 million (down M/M from $83 million).

January 2023 featured at least two apparent mutual fund industry newcomers: Focus and Panagram Structured Asset Management.

On the flip side, Overlay Shares took the outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $85 million in January 2023 outflows, up M/M from $37 million in December 2022 but down Y/Y from $52 million in January 2022 inflows. Other big January 2023 outflows sufferers included: Nottingham, $67 million (up M/M from $2 million, down Y/Y from $6 million in net inflows); Toews, $63 million (up M/M from $21 million, down Y/Y from $17 million in net inflows); Callahan's Trust for Credit Unions, $54 million (down M/M from $57 million, down Y/Y from $234 million); and Teucrium, $45 million (down M/M from $106 million, up Y/Y from $6 million).

As a group, micro firms brought in $696 million in net January 2023 inflows, equivalent to 0.69 percent of their combined AUM and accounting for 1.63 percent of overall industry long-term inflows. That compares with $187 million in net outflows, 0.19 percent of AUM, and 0.22 percent of industry outflows in December 2022, and with $1.624 billion in net inflows, 1.74 percent of AUM, and 18.17 percent of industry inflows in January 2022.

Across the entire industry, the 783 firms tracked by the M* team (down M/M from 788, down Y/Y from 797) brought in an estimated $42.682 billion in net January 2023 inflows, equivalent to 0.18 percent of overall long-term fund AUM of $24.165 trillion, across 42,338 funds. That's up M/M from $85.82 billion in net outflows and 0.38 percent of AUM in December 2022, and up Y/Y from $8.936 billion in net inflows and 0.03 percent of AUM in January 2022.

Passive funds brought in $47.436 billion in net long-term fund inflows in January 2023, up M/M from $35.056 billion in December 2022 and up Y/Y from $22.087 billion in January 2022. Yet active funds suffered $4.367 billion in net January 2023 outflows, down M/M from $121.317 billion and down Y/Y from $13.138 billion. 

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