A contrarian boutique led the smallest fund firms' pack last year, as that group's inflows returned.

Murray Stahl Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC Chairman, CEO, Chief Investment Officer, Co-Founder

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on December 2021 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 517 firms (up from 499 in November 2021 and up from 484 in December 2020) with less than $1 billion each in long-term fund AUM.

Micro fund firms had $94 billion in total long-term fund AUM as of December 31, 2021, accounting for 0.33 percent of overall industry long-term fund AUM. That compares with $94 billion and 0.34 percent on November 30, 2021, and with $91 billion and 0.38 percent on December 31, 2020.

246 of those micro fund firms brought in net inflows last month, up from 258 in November 2021 and $228 million in December 2020.

Horizon Kinetics led the pack last year, thanks to an estimated $812 million in net 2021 inflows. Other big 2021 inflows winners included: Holbrook Holdings, $463 million (up from $58 million in 2020); Sprucegrove Investment Management, $435 million; Absolute Strategies, $387 million (up from $129 million); and CrossBridge, $358 million (up from $5 million in net inflows).

2021 included a host of apparent newcomers, including: Abraham Trading Co, Acruence, Advisors Capital, AGRA Investment Management, ASYMshare, ATAC, BAD Investment, Barrow, Certeza, Curasset Capital Management, Democracy Investments, Embassy, Faith Investor, Geneva, Genz, Grizzle, GuruFocus, Humankind, iClima, IDX, InfraCap, Inherent Wealth, Left Brain Wealth Management, Legal & General, Monarch Funds, Morgan Creek, OneAscent, Oriental Trust, Reflection Asset Management, Rita, Robinson Capital, SonicShares, Sparkline Capital, TOPS, the Valkyrie ETF Trust II, VegTech, the World Funds Trust, and ZEGA, as well as Horizon Kinetics and Sprucegrove.

PineBridge led the pack in the fourth quarter, thanks to an estimated $278 million in net inflows. Other Q4 2021 inflows winners include; Highland, $236 million; and Curasset, $202 million.

PineBridge also led the pack last month, thanks to an estimated $283 million in net December 2021 inflows, up month-over-month from $2 million in net outflows in November 2021 and up year-over-year from $6 million in net outflows in December 2020. Other big December 2021 inflows winners included: Curasset, $202 million; and Rayliant, $102 million (up M/M from $2 million).

On the flip side, 2021 was a rough year for Sunbridge Capital Partners' mutual fund business, which suffered an estimated $1.862 billion in net outflows, topping the micro firm outflows pack. Other big 2021 outflows sufferers included: Muzinich, $428 million (up from $2 million); and MainGate Trust, $337 million (down from $11 million in net inflows).

Last quarter was also rough for Sunbridge, which led the micro firm outflows pack thanks to an estimated $186 million in net outflows. Other big Q4 2021 outflows sufferers included: Aware, $113 million; and Liberty Street, $93 million.

And Sunbridge also led the micro firm outflows pack last month, with $160 million in net outflows, up M/M from $23 million in November 2021. Other big December 2021 outflows sufferers included: Horizon Kinetics, $49 million (down M/M from $36 million in net inflows); and Icon, $49 million (up M/M from $2 million, up Y/Y from $16 million).

As a group, micro fund firms brought in an estimated $7.889 billion in net 2021 inflows, equivalent to 8.42 percent of their combined AUM and accounting for 0.65 percent of industry inflows. That compares with $289 million in net 2020 outflows.

In Q4 2021, micro firms brought in an estimated $2.566 billion in net inflows, equivalent to 2.74 percent of their combined AUM and accouting for 1.03 percent of industry inflows.

And in December 2021 alone, the smalleet fund firms brought in an estimated $760 million in net inflows, equivalent to 0.81 percent of their combined AUM and accounting for 0.87 percent of industry inflows. That's compares with $691 million, 0.73 percent of AUM, and 0.85 percent of industry flows in November 2021, and with $1.287 billion, 1.41 percent of AUM, and 1.33 of industry flows in December 2020.

Across the entire industry, the 799 fund firms tracked by the M* team (up from 781 in November 2021 and up from 751 in December 20202) brought in an estimated $1.21309 trillion in net inflows, equivalent to 4.33 percent of overall long-term fund AUM of $28.084 trillion on December 31, 2021. That's up from $220.218 billion, 0.92 percent, and $23.862 trillion in AUM in 2020.

In Q4 2021, the overall industry brought in $250.128 billion in net long-term fund inflows, equivalent to 0.89 percent overall long-term fund AUM.

In December 2021 alone, the overall industry brought in $87.633 billion in net long-term fund inflows, equivalent to 0.31 percent of long-term fund AUM. That's up from $80.955 billion and 0.3 percent in November 2021, but it's down from $96.953 billion and 0.41 percent in December 2020.

Passive funds brought in $95.932 billion in net long-term fund inflows in December 2021, up from $83.006 billion in November 2021 and up from $59.958 billion in December 2020. On the flip side, active funds suffered $8.299 billion in December 2021 outflows, up from $2.051 billion in November 2021 and down from $36.995 billion in December 2020 inflows. 

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