The Low-Cost Leviathan regained the lead last month among industry titans, despite big drops in inflows, according to the latest data from the folks at a publicly traded investment research firm.

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on January 2025 mutual fund and ETF flows, excluding money market funds and funds of funds. (Other asset management products, like collective trusts and SMAs, are also not included.***) More specifically, this article focuses on the 73 firms with at least 100 long-term mutual funds and ETFs each.

Vanguard took pole position last month, thanks to an estimated $23.718 billion in net January 2025 inflows, down by $8.803 billion month-over-month from December 2024 and down by $3.061 billion year-over-year from January 2024. Other big January 2025 inflows winners included: BlackRock (including iShares), $13.221 billion (down by $30.369 billion M/M, up by $4.673 billion Y/Y); Fidelity, $8.727 billion (down by $2.229 billion M/M, down by $4.363 billion Y/Y); J.P. Morgan (including Six Circles), $7.139 billion (up by $2.514 billion M/M, down by $221 million Y/Y); and Invesco, $5.44 billion (up by $942 million M/M, down by $3.062 billion Y/Y).

Yet BlackRock leads the large firm pack for the trailing twelve months ending January 31, 2025, thanks to an estimated $288.62 billion in net inflows. Other big TTM inflows winners included: Vanguard, $219.099 billion; and Fidelity, $102.635 billion.

On the flip side, State Street's SSGA took the outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $11.12 billion in net January 2025 outflows, a $27.606-billion net flows drop M/M from December 2024 and down by $6.385 billion Y/Y from January 2024. Other big January 2025 outflows sufferers included: Capital Group (home of American Funds), $6.491 billion (down by $3.568 billion M/M, up by $2.424 billion Y/Y); MassMutual, $5.683 billion (up by $5.462 billion M/M, up by $5.497 billion Y/Y); T. Rowe Price, $5.115 billion (up by $799 million M/M, up by $831 million Y/Y); and Franklin Templeton (including Putnam and Royce), $2.465 billion (down by $2.084 billion M/M, up by $407 million Y/Y).

Cap Group leads the large firm outflows pack for the 12 months ending January 31, 2025, thanks to an estimated $57.566 billion in net outflows. Other big TTM outflows sufferers included: Franklin Templeton, $49.273 billion; and T. Rowe Price, $45.706 billion.

As a group, the largest fund firms brought in $30.56 billion in January 2025 inflows, accounting for 76.6 percent of overall industry inflows, after dropping by $62.196 billion M/M. As of January 31, 2025, large firms (9.1 percent of all fund firms) had $29.371 trillion in AUM (93.4 percent of industry AUM) across 35,865 funds (82.9 percent of industry funds).

Large fund firms brought in $675.998 billion in TTM inflows as of January 31, 2025.

Across the whole industry, the 800 firms (down by six M/M but up by 27 Y/Y) brought in $39.92 billion in net January 2025 inflows. (That's down by $56.998 billion M/M but up by $3.979 billion Y/Y.) As of January 31, 2025, the industry had $31.435 trillion in AUM (up by $888 billion M/M and up by $4.812 trillion Y/Y) across 43,279 funds (down by 63 M/M but up by 833 Y/Y).

For the 12 months ending January 31, 2025, the industry brought in $732.311 billion in net inflows.

***This caveat is particularly important for large fund firms, many of which are big players in the 401(k) business, where collective investment trusts (CITs) and separately managed accounts (SMAs) are commonly used alternatives to traditional mutual funds. 

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