A Midwestern fund family retook the lead last quarter among midsized fund firm's as the group's net inflows returned, according to the latest data from the folks at a publicly traded investment research firm.

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on September 2025 mutual fund and ETF flows, excluding money market funds and funds of funds. (Other asset management products, like CITs and separate accounts, are also not included.) More specificially, this article focuses on the 211 firms (down by one quarter-over-quarter from Q2 2025 but up by one year-over-year from Q3 2024) with between 10 and 99 long-term mutual funds or ETFs each.

Baird (including Strategas) took the lead last quarter, thanks to an estimated $4.753 billion in net inflows in the third quarter of 2025, up by $2.739 billion Q/Q from Q2 2025 but down by $15 million Y/Y from Q3 2024. Other big Q3 2025 inflows winners included:

Edward Jones' Bridge Builder, $4.689 billion (up by $1.386 billion Q/Q, up by $1.646 billion Y/Y);

Neos, $4.303 billion (up by $1.868 billion Q/Q, up by $3.642 billion Y/Y);

Roundhill, $2.482 billion (up by $1.857 billion Q/Q, up by $1.659 billion Y/Y); and

KraneShares, $2.044 billion (up by $3.625 billion Q/Q, up by $1.107 billion Y/Y).

Yet Neos took the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $1.625 billion in net September 2025 inflows. Other big inflows winners included: Bridge Builder, $1.403 billion; and Roundhill, $1.278 billion.

On the flip side, Pacer led the outflows pack for a second quarter in a row, thanks to an estimated $2.677 billion in net Q3 2025 outflows, down by $604 million Q/Q from Q2 2025 and a $3.241-billion net flows drop Y/Y from Q3 2024. Other big Q3 2025 outflows sufferers included:

Baron, $1.417 billion (up by $825 million Q/Q, down by $72 million Y/Y);

FMI, $1.241 billion (up by $296 million Q/Q, up by $1.151 billion Y/Y);

GQG, $1.178 billion (a $1.621-billion net flows drop Q/Q, a $3.221-billion net flows drop Y/Y); and

Valic, $982 million (down by $58 million Q/Q, down by $16 million Y/Y).

Pacer also led the outflows pack for a third month running, thanks to an estimated $827 million in net September 2025 outflows. Other big outflows sufferers last month included: Brown Advisory, $321 million; and Baron, $320 million.

As a group, mid-size fund firms brought in $21.912 billion in Q3 2025 inflows (up by $32.106 billion Q/Q, up by $8.464 billion Y/Y). That accounts for 9.3 percent of overall industry inflows last quarter.

As of September 30, 2025, mid-size fund firms held $1.982 trillion in AUM, accounting for 5.7 percent of overall industry AUM (and up by $163 billion Q/Q and by $173 billion Y/Y). Those firms had 5,991 mutual funds and ETFs, accounting for 12.8 percent of overall industry funds (and down by 65 Q/Q but up by 2 Y/Y).

In September 2025, mid-size firms brought in $8.464 billion in net inflows. They accounted for 9.7 percent of industry inflows.

Across the whole industry, the 770 fund firms tracked by the M* team (up by 2 Q/Q) brought in $235.926 billion in net Q3 2025 inflows. That's up by $169.941 billion Q/Q and up by $72.268 billion Y/Y.

The industry ended Q3 2025 with $34.692 trillion in AUM, up by $1.956 trillion Q/Q and up by $4.133 trillion Y/Y. The industry had 46,628 ETFs and mutual funds at the end of Q3 2025, up by 3,398 Q/Q and up by 3,505 Y/Y.

In September 2025, the industry overall brought in $86.827 billion in net inflows. 

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