The Low-Cost Leviathan regained the flows lead last month among large fund firms, even as the industry's 11-month inflows streak was cut short, according to the latest data from the folks at a publicly traded investment research firm.

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on April 2025 mutual fund and ETF flows, excluding money market funds and funds of funds. (Other asset management products, like collective trusts and separate accounts, are also not included.*) More specifically, this article focuses on the 73 firms with at least 100 long-term mutual funds or ETFs each.

Vanguard regained the pole position last month, thanks to an estimated $25.59 billion in net April 2025 inflows, up by $9.914 billion month-over-month from March 2025 and up by $13.426 billion year-over-year from April 2024. Other big April 2025 inflows winners included:

Schwab, $12.739 billion (up by $10.607 billion M/M, up by $10.375 billion Y/Y);

State Street's SSGA, $3.431 billion (up by $17.731 billion M/M, up by $14.037 billion Y/Y);

Rafferty's Direxion, $3.126 billion (down by $692 million M/M, up by $1.754 billion Y/Y); and

ProShares and ProFunds, $2.859 billion (down by $89 million M/M, up by $4.274 billion Y/Y).

Yet BlackRock (including iShares) leads the inflows pack over the last year, thanks to an estimated $297.999 billion in net inflows for the trailing twelve months ending April 30, 2025. Other big TTM inflows winners included: Vanguard, $219.452 billion; and SSGA, $94.032 billion.

On the flip side, BlackRock took the outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $11.576 billion in net April 2025 outflows, a $50.202-billion net flows drop M/M from March 2025 and a $12.451-billion net flows drop Y/Y from April 2024. Other big April 2025 outflows sufferers included:

Capital Group (home of American Funds), $7.554 billion (down by $2.036 billion M/M, up by $197 million Y/Y);

T. Rowe Price, $7.009 billion (up by $3.031 billion M/M, up by $438 million Y/Y);

Fidelity, $6.702 billion (up by $4.518 billion M/M, a $14.705-billion net flows drop Y/Y); and

Invesco, $5.994 billion (up by $3.186 billion M/M, an $8.607-billion net flows drop Y/Y).

Yet Capital Group leads the outflows over the last year, thanks to an estimated $62.755 billion in TTM outflows as of April 30, 2025. Other big outflows sufferers included: Franklin Templeton $49.133 billion; and T. Rowe Price, $48.387 billion.

As a group, large fund firms suffered $34.437 billion April 2025 outflows (a $60.712-billion net flows drop M/M), accounting for 76 percent of net industry outflows. As of April 30, 2025, large firms (9.6 percent of all fund firms) had $28.146 trillion in AUM (93.3 percent of industry AUM) across 36,201 funds (83.2 percent of industry funds).

Yet large firms brought in $621.749 billion in TTM inflows as of April 30, 2025. They accounted for 94.7 percent of industry inflows in that period.

Across the whole industry, the 758 fund firms tracked by the M* team suffered $45.293 billion in net April 2025 outflows, a $69.196-billion net flows drop M/M but up by $36.284 billion Y/Y. It was the industry's first monthly outflows since April 2024.

As of April 30, 2025, the industry had $30.183 trillion in AUM (up by $24 billion M/M and up by $2.677 triillion Y/Y) across 43,525 funds (up by 54 M/M, up by 792 Y/Y).

The industry brought in $656.261 billon in TTM inflows as of April 30, 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 separate accounts are commonly used alternatives to traditional mutual funds. 

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