The world's last mutual fund firm regained the passive inflows lead last month, according to the latest data from the folks at a publicly traded investment research company.

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on April 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 one month-over-month from March 2025 and year-over-year from April 2024) that offer passively managed long-term mutual funds or ETFs.

Vanguard took the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $34.75 billion in net April 2025 passive inflows, up by $16.373 billion M/M from March 2025 and up by $17.942 billion Y/Y from April 2024. Other big April 2025 passive inflows winners included:

Schwab, $12.77 billion (up by $10.568 billion M/M, up by $10.352 billion Y/Y);

State Street's SSGA, $4.639 billion (up by $17.354 billion M/M, up by $15.492 billion Y/Y);

ProShares and ProFunds, $2.902 billion (up by $57 million M/M, up by $4.002 billion Y/Y); and

Rafferty's Direxion, $2.496 billion (up by $293 million M/M, up by $1.262 billion Y/Y).

On the flip side, BlackRock (including iShares) took the outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $9.289 billion in net April 2025 passive outflows, a $46.1-billion net flows drop M/M from March 2025 and a $9.933-billion net flows drop Y/Y from April 2024. Other big April 2025 passive outflows sufferers included:

Invesco, $3.143 billion (up by $2.484 billion M/M, a $7.428-billion net flows drop Y/Y);

VanEck, $2.529 billion (up by $2.174 billion M/M, up by $1.597 billion Y/Y);

Pacer, $1.767 billion (up by $807 million M/M, a $3.507-billion net flows drop Y/Y); and

TIAA's Nuveen, $1.523 billion (up by $1.415 billion M/M, a $2.506-billion net flows drop Y/Y).

Overall, passive funds brought in a combined $36.067 billion in net inflows in April 2025, down by $18.533 billion M/M from March 2025 but up by $19.36 billion Y/Y from April 2024. 46.1 percent (70) of passive fund families brought in net passive inflows in April 2025.

*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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