The Low-Cost Leviathan kept the pole position last month among passive fund firms as the group's inflows held steady, according to the latest data from the folks at a publicly traded investment research company.

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on February 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 10 year-over-year from February 2025) that offer passively managed, long-term mutual funds or ETFs.

Vanguard stayed in the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $53.68 billion in net February 2026 passive inflows, down by $1.108 billion month-over-month from January 2026 but up by $32.636 billion Y/Y from February 2025. Other big February 2026 passive inflows winners included:

BlackRock (including iShares), $36.899 billion (up by $21.693 billion M/M, up by $23.736 billion Y/Y);

Fidelity, $10.62 billion (up by $366 million M/M, up by $16 million Y/Y);

Schwab, $7.164 billion (up by $1.186 billion M/M, up by $4.269 billion Y/Y); and

VanEck, $2.913 billion (down by $2.898 billion M/M, up by $4.841 billion Y/Y).

On the flip side, State Street's SSIM took the outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $1.72 billion in net February 2026 passive outflows, a $10.548-billion net flows drop M/M from January 2026 and a $22.177-billion net flows drop Y/Y from February 2025. Other big February 2026 passive outflows sufferers included:

T. Rowe Price, $1.017 billion (up by $903 million M/M, up by $747 million Y/Y);

ProShares and ProFunds, $1.001 billion (up by $412 million M/M, down by $294 billion Y/Y);

Raffery's Direxion, $953 million (down by $5.845 billion M/M, down by $922 million Y/Y); and

KraneShares, $668 million (a $1.222-billion net flows drop M/M, a $2.526-billion net flows drop Y/Y).

Overall, passive funds netted $116.397 billion in net inflows in February 2026, up by $147 million M/M and up by $41.047 billion Y/Y. 54.3 percent (88 firms) of the passive fund families brought in net passive inflows last month, down M/M from 61.7 percent and down Y/Y from 57.2 percent.

Passive funds accounted for 77.6 percent of total industry inflows last month. 20.8 percent of all fund firms offered at least some passive funds as of February 28, 2026.

*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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