Long considered a threat to active management of investment assets because of its strong commitment to passive index funds, Vanguard Group has surprised the investment world by “swimming upstream” against the adversarial tide of the first half of 2016 — Vanguard expanded its actively managed portfolio while other companies retreated, according to a Bloomberg report by Luke Kawa.

“The whole story of the big sea change underway in money management isn’t necessarily from mutual funds to exchange-traded funds or active to passive or human to robo-advisor — it’s really about high-cost to low-cost,” Bloomberg Intelligence Analyst Eric Balchunas said in the article. “… Vanguard’s success shows that low costs can outweigh the trend toward passive investing. Ironically, Vanguard could be active’s best hope right now.”

The $28 billion in new mutual fund assets puts Vanguard’s active management total at $1 trillion, with a 0.27 percent average fee that’s a full half-percent lower than its competitors.

“Asset management companies believe investors are willing to pay a premium for actively-managed investments,” S&P Global Market Intelligence Director of Mutual Fund and ETF Research Todd Rosenbluth said. “We’re finding out whether or not that’s true because investors are going to vote with their wallets.”

Read more about Vanguard’s rise in active management on Bloomberg here, and check out previous VISTA Today coverage of the Malvern mutual fund giant here.