An ETF shop led the small fund firm inflows pack last quarter with nearly $1 billion in net inflows.

Harold Bruce "Bruce" Bond Innovator Capital Management LLC President, CEO

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on March 2022 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 172 firms (up from 167 in February 2022 and March 2021) with between $1 billion and $10 billion each in long-term fund AUM.

Small firms had $541 billion in total long-term fund AUM as of March 31, 2022, accounting for 2.04 percent of overall industry long-term fund AUM. That compares with $519 billion and 1.98 percent on February 28, 2022, and with $543 billion and 2.18 percent on March 31, 2021.

73 of those small fund firms brought in net inflows last month, down from 93 in February 2022 and down from 101 in March 2021.

Innovator led in the first quarter of 2022, thanks to an estimated $916 million in net Q1 2022 inflows. Other big inflows winners included: Smead, $678 million; Glenmede, $515 million; Fuller & Thaler, $479 million; and Vivaldi, $466 million.

Vivaldi led proportionately last quarter, thanks to estimated net Q1 2022 inflows equivalent to 37.7 percent of its AUM. Other big inflows winners included: Highland, 31.2 percent; Horizon Kinetics, 29.1 percent; Cambria, 23.4 percent; and Smead, 17.1 percent.

LSV took the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $402 million in March 2022 inflows, up month-over-month from $23 million in February 2022 and up year-over-year from $109 million in March 2021 outflows. Other big March 2022 inflows winners included: Horizon Kinetics, $342 million (up M/M from $33 million, up Y/Y from $52 million); and Innovator, $298 million (down M/M from $304 million, up Y/Y from $155 million).

On the flip side, AlphaCentric led the small fund firm outflows pack last quarter, thanks to an estimated $1.693 billion in net Q1 2022 outflows. Other big outflows sufferers included: Callahan Financial Services' Trust for Credit Unions, $1.089 billion; Frontier, $1.022 billion; Clark's Navigator, $841 million; and Angel Oak, $558 million.

AlphaCentric also led the outflows pack proportionately last quarter, thanks to estimated net outflows equivalent to 60.9 percent of its AUM. Other big outflows sufferers included: Frontier, 51.5 percent; Trust for Credit Unions, 35.9 percent; Semper, 30.1 percent; and Emerald, 18.5 percent.

Navigator took the outflows lead last month, thank to an estimated $1.053 billion in net March 2022 outflows, down M/M from $107 million in February 2022 inflows and down Y/Y from $185 million in March 2021 inflows. Other big March 2022 outflows sufferers included: AlphaCentric, $843 million (up M/M from $785 million, down Y/Y from $52 million in net inflows); and Angel Oak, $576 million (up M/M from $223 million, down Y/Y from $286 million in net inflows).

As a group, small fund firms brought in an estimated $597 million in net Q1 2022 inflows, equivalent to about 0.11 percent of their combined AUM and accounting for 0.52 percent of overall industry long-term inflows.

Yet in March 2022 alone, small fund firms suffered an estimated $3.391 billion in net outflows, equivalent to 0.63 percent of their combined AUM. That's down M/M from $895 million in net February 2022 inflows and 0.17 percent of AUM, and down Y/Y from $4.119 billion in net March 2021 inflows and 0.76 percent of AUM.

Across the entire industry, the 791 firms tracked by the M* team (down M/M from 795 but up Y/Y from 758) brought in an estimated $114.402 billion in net Q1 2022 inflows. That's equivalent to 0.43 percent of their $26.461 trillion in combined AUM (up M/M from $26.219 trillion, up Y/Y from $24.865 trillion).

Long-term funds brought in an estimated $30.653 billion in net inflows in March 2022, equivalent to 0.12 percent of their combined AUM. That's down M/M from $47.85 billion and 0.18 percent of AUM, and down Y/Y from $156.503 billion and 0.63 percent of AUM.

Passive funds brought in an estimated $101.064 billion in net long-term fund inflows in March 2022, up M/M from $80.09 billion but down Y/Y from $114.117 billion. Active funds suffered $70.411 billion in net outflows in March 2022, up M/M from $32.24 billion but down Y/Y from $42.386 billion in net inflows. 

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