The Low-Cost Leviathan regained the pole position last month among passive fund firms, even as the group's net flows fell by 33.7 percent, according to the latest data from the folks at a publicly traded investment research company.

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on January 2026 open-end mutual fund and ETF flows, excluding money-market funds and funds-of-funds*. More specifically, this article focuses on the 162 firms (up by 1 month-over-month from December 2025 and up by 8 year-over-year from January 2025) that offer passively managed, long-term mutual funds or ETFs.

Vanguard pulled back ahead last month, thanks to an estimated $54.788 billion in net January 2026 passive inflows, up by $12.586 billion M/M from December 2025 and up by $24.062 billion Y/Y from January 2025. Other big January 2026 passive inflows winners included:

BlackRock (including iShares), $15.206 billion (down by $53.912 billion M/M, up by $4.643 billion Y/Y);

Fidelity, $10.245 billion (down by $3.27 billion M/M, up by $3.243 billion Y/Y);

State Street's SSIM, $8.828 billion (down by $13.418 billion M/M, up by $21.298 billion Y/Y); and

Invesco, $7.842 billion (down by $3.762 billion M/M, up by $1.02 billion Y/Y).

On the flip side, Rafferty's Direxion led the outflows pack for a second month running, thanks to an estimated $6.798 billion in net January 2026 passive outflows, up by $4.318 billion M/M from December 2025 and up by $5.028 billion Y/Y from January 2025. Other big January 2026 passive outflows sufferers included:

Jackson, $660 million (up by $169 million M/M, up by $95 million Y/Y);

ProShares and ProFunds, $589 million (down by $66 million M/M, down by $231 million Y/Y);

Grayscale, $486 million (up by $420 million M/M, up by $190 million Y/Y); and

Principal, $416 million (a $1.761-billion net flows drop M/M, a $497-million net flows drop Y/Y).

Overall, passive funds netted $116.25 billion in net inflows in January 2026, down by $58.405 billion M/M and up by $68.284 billion Y/Y. (That translates into 85.5 percent of total industry inflows last month, while 14.5 percent went into active funds.) 61.7 percent (162) of the passive fund familiies brought in net passive inflows last month, up M/M from 60.2 percent and up Y/Y from 51.9 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 separate accounts are commonly used alternatives to traditional mutual funds. 

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