MutualFundWire.com: Passive Flows Climb By $77B
MutualFundWire.com
   The insiders' edge for 40 Act industry executives!
an InvestmentWires' Publication
Friday, January 30, 2026

Passive Flows Climb By $77B


Flows into passive funds rose by more than 79 percent last month as the Gotham Goliath regained pole position, according to the latest data from the folks at a publicly traded investment research company.

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on December 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 collective trusts and separate accounts.*) More specifically, this article focuses on the 161 firms (up by 5 month-over-month from November 2025 and up by 7 year-over-year from December 2024) that offer passively managed, long-term mutual funds or ETFs.

BlackRock (including iShares) took the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $69.118 billion in net December 2025 passive inflows, up by $29.467 billion M/M from November 2025 and by $25.171 billion Y/Y from December 2024. Other big December 2025 passive inflows winners included:
  • Vanguard, $42.202 billion (up by $226 million M/M, up by $2.44 billion Y/Y);
  • State Street's SSIM, $22.246 billion (up by $22.079 billion M/M, up by $6.248 billion Y/Y);
  • Fidelity, $13.524 billion (up by $6.986 billion M/M, down by $1.9 bilion Y/Y); and
  • Invesco, $11.604 billion (up by $8.032 billion M/M, up by $4.659 billion Y/Y).

    • On the flip side, Rafferty's Direxion took the outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $2.48 billion in net December 2025 passive outflows, a $3.074-billion net flows drop M/M from November 2025 and up by $1.897 billion Y/Y from December 2024. Other big December 2025 passive outflows sufferers included:
  • TIAA's Nuveen, $2.084 billion (a $2.304-billion net flows drop M/M, up by $1.968 billion Y/Y);
  • ProShares and ProFunds, $655 million (a $1.956-billion net flows drop M/M, down by $48 million Y/Y);
  • WisdomTree, $570 million (an $834-million net flows drop M/M, up by $289 million Y/Y); and
  • Jackson, $491 million (down by $113 million M/M, down by $18 million Y/Y).

    • Overall, passive funds brought in a combined $175.345 billion in net December 2025 inflows (up by $77.456 billion M/M, up by $47.948 billion Y/Y). 60.2 percent (97) of the passive fund families brought in net passive inflows last month, up M/M from 52.6 percent and up Y/Y from 57.1 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.


    Printed from: MFWire.com/story.asp?s=72031

    Copyright 2026, InvestmentWires, Inc.
    All Rights Reserved
    Back to Top