A Connecticut ETF shop pulled ahead last quarter among small fund firms, according to the latest data from the folks at a publicly traded investment research firm.

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on March 2025 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 474 firms (down by 15 month-over-month* from February 2025, down by 44 quarter-over-quarter from December 2024, and down by 27 year-over-year from March 2024) with fewer than ten long-term mutual funds and ETFs each.

Neos took the lead last quarter, thanks to an estimated $1.306 billion in net inflows in the first quarter of 2025, up by $672 million Q/Q from Q4 2024 and up by $777 million Y/Y from Q1 2024. Other big March 2025 inflows winners included:

Alpha Architect, $1.29 billion (up by $704 million Q/Q, down by $23 million Y/Y);

Performance Trust, $539 million (up by $134 million Q/Q, down by $257 million Y/Y);

Select Funds, $469 million (up by $469 million Q/Q); and

Aptus, $397 million (down by $53 million Q/Q, up by $289 million Y/Y).

Yet Alpha Architect took the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $465 million in net March 2025 inflows. Other big inflows winners included: Select, $404 million; and Neos, $366 million.

Last month, there were three apparent mutual fund and ETF industry newcomers: Fortuna Funds, McCarthy & Cox, and Measured Risk Portfolios.

On the flip side, Edgewood took the small firm outflows lead last quarter, thanks to an estimated $1.992 billion in net Q1 2025 outflows, up by $552 million Q/Q from Q4 2024 and up by $1.076 billion Y/Y from Q1 2024. Other big Q1 2025 outflows sufferers included:

Primecap, $1.147 billion (down by $482 million Q/Q, up by $135 million Y/Y);

Nuance, $828 million (up by $661 million Q/Q, up by $477 million Y/Y);

Akre, $805 million (up by $175 million Q/Q, up by $30 million Y/Y); and

Champlain, $701 million (up by $46 million Q/Q, up by $438 million Y/Y).

Edgewood also took the outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $528 million in net March 2025 outflows. Other big outflows sufferers included: Primecap, $408 million; and Ark, $220 million.

As a group, small fund firms brought in $320 million in net March 2025 inflows (down by $108 million M/M, down by $2.584 billion Y/Y), accounting for 1.3 percent of overall industry inflows. As of March 31, 2025, small firms had a combined $283 billion in AUM (down by $24 billion M/M, down by $27 billion Q/Q, down by $17 billion Y/Y) across 1,401 funds (down by 39 M/M, down by 94 Q/Q, down by 85 Y/Y). Small firms ended the month accounting fro 62.5 percent of the industry's total fund firms, 3.2 percent of the different funds, and 0.9 percent of AUM.

In Q1 2025, small fund firms brought in $1.907 billion in net inflows (accounting for 1.3 percent of industry inflows). That's up by $5.277 billion Q/Q but down by $7.523 billion Y/Y.

Across the whole industry, the 758 firms (down by 15 M/M* and down by 24 Y/Y) tracked by the M* team brought in $23.903 billion in net March 2025 inflows. (That's down by $53.732 billion M/M and down by $65.646 billion Y/Y.) As of March 31, 2025, the industry had $30.159 trillion in AUM (down by $1.113 trillion M/M, down by $388 billion Q/Q, but up by $1.731 trillion Y/Y) across 43,471 funds (up by 104 M/M, up by 129 Q/Q, up by 885 Y/Y).

In Q1 2025, the industry brought in $141.402 billion in net inflows. That's down by $152.288 billion Q/Q and down by $47.618 billion Y/Y.

*These recent fund firm count changes are largely changes of classification, as the MFWire team is making an effort to properly label flows for multi-boutique asset managers and ETF-in-a-box shops. 

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