A Philadelphia area boutique led the smallest fund firms by inflows last month, according to the latest data from the folks at a publicly traded investment research firm.

Wesley Gray Alpha Architect CEO, Chief Investment Officer

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on April 2024 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 503 firms (up by two month-over-month in March 2024) with fewer than ten long-term mutual funds and ETFs each.

Alpha Architect pulled ahead last month, thanks to an estimated $668 million in net April 2024 inflows, up by $92 million M/M and up by $602 million year-over-year from April 2023. Other big April 2024 inflows winners included: APTUS ETFs, $293 million (up by $217 million M/M, up by $273 million Y/Y); Neos, $258 million (up by $44 million M/M, up by $253 million Y/Y); Volatility Shares, $210 million (down by $689 million M/M); and Performance Trust, $192 million (down by $20 million M/M, up by $101 million Y/Y).

Last month, the long-term mutual fund and ETF industry had at least five apparent newcomers: Even Herd LLC, Optimize Financial Inc., River1 Asset Management LLC, Split Rock Trading & Wealth Management LLC, and StockSnips.

For the trailing 12 months ending April 30, 2024, Column Funds (from Northwestern Mutual's Mason Street Advisors) led the pack with $3.722 billion in net inflows. Other big TTM inflows winners included: Alpha Architect, $2.499 billion; and 21Shares, $2.276 billion.

On the flip side, Primecap took the outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $643 million in net April 2024 outflows, up M/M by $314 million, up Y/Y by $523 million. Other big April 2024 outflows sufferers included: Ark, $495 million (up by $33 million M/M, up by $29 million Y/Y); Blackstone, $282 million (up by $240 million M/M, up by $245 million Y/Y); Tweedy Browne, $165 million (up by $32 million M/M, up by $141 million Y/Y); and Akre, $160 million (down by $156 million M/M, up by $22 million Y/Y).

Primecap led the TTM outflows pack as of April 30, 2024, thanks to an estimated $3.798 billion in net outflows. Other big outflows sufferers included: Akre, $2.775 billion; and Ark, $2.766 billion.

As a group, small fund firms brought in $1.191 billion in net April 2024 inflows, with 240 of those firms netting inflows. That compares with $2.904 billion in net inflows and 214 firms with net inflows in March 2024.

As of April 30, 2024, small fund firms had a combined $290 billion in AUM across 1,473 funds. (That compares with $300 billion in AUM and 1,486 funds on March 31, 2024.) Small firms last month accounted for 1.1 percent of industry AUM and 3.4 percent of industry funds.

Small fund firms brought in $2.733 billion TTM as of April 30, 2024. 238 of those firms netted TTM inflows.

Across the whole industry, the 789 firms (unchanged M/M but up Y/Y from 776) tracked by the M* team suffered an estimated $9.009 billion in net April 2024 outflows, down by $98.558 net M/M and down by $15.664 billion Y/Y. It was the industry's first monthly net outflows since October 2023.

The industry ended April 2024 with $27.506 trillion in AUM across 42,733 funds. (That compares with $28.428 trillion in AUM and 42,586 funds on March 31, 2024, and with $24.131 trillion in AUM and 42,060 funds on April 30, 2023).

For the TTM ending April 30, 2024, the industry brought in $229.942 billion in net inflows. 

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