A Connecticut ETF shop took the lead last quarter among small fund firms, even as the group's inflows slowed, according to the latest data from the folks at a publicly traded investment research firm.

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on September 2025 mutual fund and ETF flows, excluding money market funds and funds of funds. (Other asset management products, like CITs and separate accounts, are also not included.) More specifically, this article focuses on the 484 firms (up by one quarter-over-quarter from Q2 2025 but down by 27 year-over-year from Q3 2024) with fewer than ten long-term mutual funds or ETFs each.

REX Advisers took the lead last quarter, thanks to an estimated $532 million in net inflows in the third quarter of 2025, up by $524 million Q/Q from Q2 2025 and up by $419 million Y/Y from Q3 2024. Other big Q3 2025 inflows winners included:

Scharf, $426 million (up by $431 million Q/Q, up by $441 million Y/Y);

Wedbush, $379 million;

Holbrook, $341 million (up by $73 million Q/Q, up by $215 million Y/Y); and

River Canyon, $299 million (up by $288 million Q/Q, up by $165 million Y/Y).

REX also took the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $286 million in net September 2025 inflows. Other big inflows winners included: Wedbush, $192 million; and 21Shares, $161 million.

There were several apparent industry newcomers last month, including: City Different Investments, MUFG, and Sphere.

On the flip side, Edgewood took the small firm outflows lead last quarter, thanks to an estimated $1.733 billion in net Q3 2025 outflows, up by $922 million Q/Q from Q2 2025 and up by $1.697 billion Y/Y from Q3 2024. Other big Q3 2025 outflows sufferers included:

Primecap, $1.001 billion (down by $494 million Q/Q, down by $183 million Y/Y);

Akre, $556 million (up by $284 million Q/Q, down by $102 million Y/Y);

Champlain, $371 million (down by $215 million Q/Q, down by $294 million Y/Y); and

21Shares, $247 million (up by $178 million Q/Q, up by $245 million Y/Y).

Edgewood also took the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $1.228 billion in net September 2025 outflows. Other big outflows sufferers included: Primecap, $233 million; and Seafarer, $210 million.

As a group, small fund firms brought in $330 million in Q3 2025 inflows (down by $1.21 billion Q/Q and down by $1.566 billion Y/Y). That accounts for 0.1 percent of industry inflows.

As of September 30, 2025, small fund firms held $305 billion in AUM (down by $2 billion Q/Q, down by $14 billion Y/Y), accounting for 0.9 percent of overall industry AUM. Those firms had 1,406 mutual funds and ETFs (down by 19 Q/Q, down by 83 Y/Y), accounting for 3 percent of overall industry funds.

In September 2025, small firms suffered $271 million in net outflows.

Across the whole industry, the 770 fund firms tracked by the M* team (up by 2 Q/Q) brought in $235.926 billion in net Q3 2025 inflows. That's up by $169.941 billion Q/Q and up by $72.268 billion Y/Y.

The industry ended Q3 2025 with $34.692 trillion in AUM, up by $1.956 trillion Q/Q and up by $4.133 trillion Y/Y. The industry had 46,628 ETFs and mutual funds at the end of Q3 2025, up by 3,398 Q/Q and up by 3,505 Y/Y.

In September 2025, the industry overall brought in $86.827 billion in net inflows. 

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