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

Laurence D. "Larry" Fink BlackRock Chairman, CEO

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on March 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 153 firms (up by one month-over-month from February 2025 and up by seven year-over-year from March 2024) that offer passively managed long-term mutual funds or ETFs.

BlackRock (including iShares) took the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $36.811 billion in net March 2025 passive inflows, up by $23.648 billion M/M from February 2025 and up by $15.241 billion Y/Y from March 2024. Other big March 2025 passive inflows winners included:

Vanguard, $18.377 billion (down by $2.667 billion M/M, down by $10.001 billion Y/Y);

Fidelity, $3.494 billion (down by $7.11 billion M/M, down by $3.23 billion Y/Y);

ProShares and ProFunds, $2.845 billion (up by $4.14 billion M/M, up by $2.678 billion Y/Y); and

Rafferty's Direxion, $2.203 billion (up by $4.078 billion M/M, up by $1.431 billion Y/Y).

On the flip side, State Street's SSGA took the outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $12.751 billion in net March 2025 passive outflows, a $33.172-billion net flows drop M/M from February 2025 and a $31.345-billion net flows drop Y/Y from March 2024. Other big March 2025 passive outflows sufferers included:

Pacer, $960 million (up by $866 million M/M, a $2.324-billion net flows drop Y/Y);

Jackson, $915 million (down by $91 million M/M, up by $538 million Y/Y);

Invesco, $659 million (an $8.74-billion net flows drop M/M, a $7.797-billion net flows drop Y/Y); and

VanEck, $355 million (down by $1.573 billion M/M, a $2.546-billion net flows drop Y/Y).

Overall, passive funds brought in a combined $54.6 billion in net inflows in March 2025, down by $20.75 billion M/M from February 2025 and down by $32.241 billion Y/Y from March 2024. 42.5 percent (65) of passive fund families brought in net passive inflows in March 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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