The Low-Cost Leviathan led the passive inflows pack for a second month in a row last month, according to the latest data from the folks at a publicly traded investment research company.

Salim Ramji Vanguard CEO, Board Member

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on February 2025 open-end mutual fund and ETF flows, excluding money-market funds and funds of funds. (The data also excludes other asset management products, like CITs and separate accounts.*) More specifically, this article focuses on the 152 firms (down by two month-over-month from January 2025 but up by 16 year-over-year from February 2024) that offer passively managed long-term mutual funds or ETFs.

Vanguard kept the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $21.044 billion in net February 2025 passive inflows, down by $9.718 billion M/M from January 2025 and down by $745 million Y/Y from February 2024. Other big February 2025 passive inflows winners included:

State Street's SSGA, $20.457 billion (up by $39.927 billion M/M, up by $25.818 billion Y/Y);

BlackRock (including iShares), $13.163 billion (up by $2.6 billion M/M, up by $8.378 billion Y/Y);

Fidelity $10.604 billion (up by $3.593 billion M/M, down by $6.115 billion Y/Y); and

Invesco, $8.081 billion (up by $1.259 billion M/M, up by $5.332 billion Y/Y).

On the flip side, VanEck took the outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $1.928 billion in net February 2025 passive outflows, up by $909 million M/M from January 2025 and a $3.216-billion net flows drop Y/Y from February 2024. Other big February 2025 passive outflows sufferers included:

Rafferty's Direxion, $1.875 billion (up by $105 million M/M, down by $442 million Y/Y);

ProShares and ProFunds, $1.295 billion (up by $475 million M/M, up by $159 million Y/Y);

Jackson, $1.006 billion (up by $441 million M/M, up by $583 million Y/Y); and

Grayscale, $689 million (up by $393 million M/M, up by $689 million Y/Y).

Overall, passive funds brought in a combined $75.35 billion in net inflows in February 2025, up by $27.384 billion M/M from January 2025 and up by $31.213 billion Y/Y from February 2024. 57.2 percent (87) of passive fund families brought in net passive inflows in February 2025, up M/M from 51.9 percent and up Y/Y from 40.4 percent.

**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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