BlackRock's active management has long been the forgotten investment in the firm's giant ETF basket they manage, but things are starting to turn. While the index business hit $10 trillion in the last quarter it was the active funds dring the fee growth in fact in the last quarter of 2021 they were responsible for 60% of the fee growth. The firm has poured lots of resources into their active funds and their active fixed-income has been a huge winner. The firm seems more willing now than ever to place itself as a big active manager where they have always been synonymous with passive investing. BlackRock credits its growth to its own internal push in active management but there has been a huge industry-wide surge in active funds.

FINSUM: Active equity still lags behind for lots of reasons, so its probably best to stick to direct indexing or ETFs in equity markets.