Indexing pioneer Vanguard Group has climbed to $4 trillion in assets for the first time, accentuating a loss of faith among investors in traditional money managers who handpick stocks.

The record of $4.048 trillion, reached at the end of January, follows a year when Vanguard’s funds pulled in more new money than all of its competitors combined, according to one industry total.

Of the $533 billion of net flows into all mutual funds and exchange-traded funds last year, 54%, or $289 billion, went to funds managed by Vanguard, according to research firm Morningstar Inc. The fund company’s own tally for the year was even higher, at $322.8 billion.

The rush to Vanguard is largely the result of a push to embrace funds that mimic broad indexes for a fraction of the cost of traditional actively managed mutual funds. Vanguard, which started the first index mutual fund for individual investors 40 years ago, is No. 2 in the asset-management world behind New York-based BlackRock Inc., another money-management giant benefiting from shifting investor tastes.

BlackRock topped $5 trillion in assets late last year for the first time. It has a larger international business than Vanguard.