An active ETF shop took the lead last among the smallest fund firms.

Noah Hamman AdvisorShares Founder, CEO

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on August 2019 open-end mutual fund and ETF flows, excluding money-market funds and funds of funds. More specifically, this article focuses on the 504 firms (four fewer than in July) with less than $1 billion in fund AUM each. 202 of those firms gained net inflows last month.

AdvisorShares took the pole position last month, bringing in an estimated $82 million in net August inflows, up from $2 million in July. Other big August winners included: Inspire, $38 million (up from $5 million); O'Shaughnessy, $37 million (up from $13 million); Liberty Street, $29 million (up from $10 million); and FS, $25 million (up from $9 million).

Proportionately, setting aside a brand new fund family, Roundhill Financial led the micro fund firm pack last month, with estimated net August inflows equivalent to 34.77 percent of its AUM, down from 38.79 percent in July. Other big August winners included: Athena Fund, 27.87 percent (up from 0.47 percent); Rrecurrent Advisors, 23.74 percent (up from 16.16 percent); Impact Shares, 22.1 percent (up from 0.73 percent in net outflows); and Princeton, 21.99 percent (up from 2.71 percent in net outflows).

August's only apparent newcomer fund family was North Capital.

On the flip side, August was a rough month for Lyrical, which suffered an estimated $104 million in net outflows, more than any other sub-$1-billion-AUM fund firm and up from $24 million in July. Other big August sufferers included: Highland, $74 million (down from $10 million in net inflows); Power Mutual Funds, $45 million (up from $40 million); Advisory Research, $45 million (up from $13 million); and Hancock Horizon, $39 million (up from $18 million).

Proportionately, AlphaOne suffered the most last month, with estimated net August outflows equivalent to 129.34 percent of its AUM (i.e. its outflows were bigger than the AUM it had left over afterwards), up from 58.35 percent in July. Other big August sufferers included: Deutsche Asset Management, 124.37 percent (down from flat flows); Symons, 49.35 percent (up from 1.24 percent); STAAR Investment Trust, 41.2 percent (up from 0.93 percent); and Affinity, 38.66 percent (down from 3.07 percent in net inflows).

As a group, the 504 fund firms with less than $1 billion each in fund AUM suffered about $360 million in net August outflows, equivalent to about 0.41 percent of their combined AUM and up from $84 million in July. Micro fund firms accounted for 2.26 percent of net industry outflows in August.

Across the whole industry (M* tracks flows from 767 firms, down from 771 in July), long-term mutual funds and ETFs suffered a combined $15.927 billion in net outflows in August, equivalent to about 0.08 percent of industry AUM. That's down from $26.698 billion in net July inflows. Passive funds suffered $4.7 billion in net August outflows, while active funds suffered $11.227 billion in net outflows. 

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