In October, redemptions from equity funds rose to $5.7 billion from less than $5 billion in September.
However, equity fund redemptions improved, falling to $1.9 billion from $2.9 billion last month.
Bond fund redemptions also eased slightly, from $1.9 billion to nearly $1.7 billion.
Year-to-date, long-term net redemptions are now approximately $31.5 billion. In contrast, at the same point last year, the industry posted positive net sales of $111.8 billion.
IFIC also said that while mutual funds remained in negative sales territory in October, ETF sales increased from $1.85 billion in September to $3.35 billion in October.
The recovery came entirely from long-term funds.
Long-dated ETFs recorded net sales of $1.85 billion in October, up from just $136 million the previous month.
In particular, equity ETFs achieved monthly net sales of $896 million, compared to negative net sales of $390 million in September.
Bond ETF sales rose to $746 million from $540 million in the month.
A rebound in net ETF sales came in October, with assets rising 4.5% to $300.5 billion.
Mutual fund assets also rose, albeit more slowly — up 2.3% in the month to $1.796 trillion, a gain of more than $40 billion.