A four-year-old, multi-boutique asset manager took the lead last month as its inflows nearly doubled, even as small firms' combined flows improved by more than $1 billion last month, according to the latest data from the folks at a publicly traded investment research firm.

Alexander Robert "Alex" Morris F/m Investments President, Chief Investment Officer

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data for August 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 159 firms (down month-over-month from 161 in July 2023 and down year-over-year from 169 in August 2022 with between $1 billion and $10 billion each in long-term fund AUM.

Small firms had $502 billion in total long-term fund AUM across 3,502 funds as of August 31, 2023, accounting for 1.99 percent of overall industry long-term AUM. That compares with $497 billion, 3,531 funds, and 1.9 percent of AUM on July 31, 2023, and with $55 million and 2.22 percent of industry AUM on August 31, 2022.

71 of those small fund firms brought in net inflows last month. That's down M/M from 73 in July 2023 and down Y/Y from 78 in August 2022.

Diffractive's F/m took the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $583 million in net August 2023 inflows, up M/M from $280 million in July 2023 and up Y/Y from negligible outflows in August 2022. Other big August 2023 inflows winners included: Simplify, $226 million (up M/M from $146 million, up Y/Y from $68 million); KraneShares, $139 million (down M/M from $917 million, up Y/Y from $677 million in net outflows); BondBloxx, $135 million (down M/M from $185 million, up Y/Y from $8 million in net outflows); and Pzena, $123 million (up M/M from $25 million, up Y/Y from $10 million).

F/m led the way against last month proportionately, thanks to net August 2023 inflows equivalent to 20.6 percent of its AUM. Other big winners included: Simplify, 11.6 percent; and Pzena, 7.7 percent.

F/m also continues to lead the 2023 inflows pack among midsize firms, thanks to an estimated $2.163 billion in net year-to-date inflows as of August 31. Other big YTD inflows winners included: BondBloxx, $1.556 billion; and Fuller & Thaler, $1.031 billion.

On the flip side, JOHCM took the outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $196 million in net outflows, down M/M from $10 million in net inflows and down Y/Y from $162 million in net outflows. Other big August 2023 outflows sufferers included: Ariel, $152 million; Blackstone, $133 million (up M/M from $49 million, up Y/Y from $132 million); ETFMG, $111 million (up M/M from $32 million, up Y/Y from $41 million); and Aptus, $101 million (down M/M from $12 million in net inflows, down Y/Y from $23 million in net inflows.

Vulcan Value Partners led the outflows pack proportionately last month, thanks to estimated net August 2023 outflows equivalent to 6.5 percent of its AUM. Other big outflows sufferers included: Aptus, 5.1 percent; and the Water Island Capital's Arbitrage Fund, 5 percent.

JOHCM also now leads the 2023 outflows pack for small fund firms, bringing in an estimated $824 million in net inflows YTD as of August 31. Other big YTD outflows sufferers included: Bridgeway, $824 million; and Matthews Asia, $771 million.

As a group, small fund firms brought in $307 million in net August 2023 inflows, equivalent to 0.06 percent of their combined AUM. That compares with $723 million and 0.15 percent in July 2023, and with $558 million and 0.11 percent in August 2022.

So far in 2023, small fund firms have suffered $847 million in net outflows YTD, as of August 31. That's equivalent to 0.17 percent of their combined AUM.

Across the entire industry, the 780 firms tracked by the M* team (up M/M from 779, down Y/Y from 784) suffered $24.468 billion in net August 2023 outflows, equivalent to 0.1 percent of their combined $25.211 trillion in AUM across 42,226 funds. That compares with $32.39 billion in net inflows, 0.13 percent of AUM, $25.75 trillion in AUM, and 42,167 funds in July 2023, and with $4.816 billion in net inflows, 0.02 percent of AUM, and $23.433 trillion in AUM in August 2022.

Active funds suffered an estimated $34.337 billion in net August 2023 outflows, up M/M from $24.413 billion and up Y/Y from $33.062 billion. On the flip side, passive funds brought in $9.869 billion in net August 2023 inflows, down M/M from $56.803 billion and down Y/Y from $37.845 billion.

As of August 31, the industry has brought in $48.162 billion in net 2023 inflows. That's equivalent to 0.19 percent of its total long-term fund AUM. 

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